March madness is in full effect and Shaheen Holloway is no stranger to the theatrics, having led Saint Peter’s on a Cinderella run to the Elite Eight last year and helping Seton Hall advance to the Sweet Sixteen as a senior in 2000.
What transpired Wednesday evening in the opening round of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden was the exact opposite for Holloway as Seton Hall gave away a four point lead with 17 seconds left to fall to 10th seeded DePaul 66-65.
“We had a chance to ice the game ... just couldn’t do it tonight,” a dejected Holloway said, in the post-game press conference.
Leading 65-61 after two free throws from graduate guard Jamir Harris, DePaul closed the score to 65-63 with seven seconds remaining on a layup by Jalen Terry off the feed from Umoja Gibson. Following a DePaul timeout to set up its press, Terry anticipated the Pirates inbound pass, stealing the ball and giving it up to Gibson, who was fouled attempting a three pointer. Gibson, a career 84% free throw shooter, calmly knocked down all three to give the Blue Demons the lead, 66-65.
“We just had two careless turnovers at the end ... some of them we work on all the time, which is why I’m really upset because we know we have to step to the basketball and be strong with it,” Holloway said.
With just four seconds remaining, junior guard Femi Odukale inbounded the ball then proceeded to get it back, racing it up the court to the rim where his layup attempt was blocked as time expired by Nick
Ongenda. The referees initially ruled the block a goaltend, which would have given The Hall the victory, but upon official review, the initial calling was overturned with the referees determining it was a game
ending block.
“I thought it was good execution, I thought we did everything except, you know, finish. He did a great job of pushing it and getting to the rim. We work on those special situations every day in practice. I keep
telling these guys you know four seconds, 3.5 seconds is a lot of time to get plays in. We executed and the kid just made a good block,” Holloway said.
Losing by one is painful, but losing after thinking you had won and then having the call overruled was that much more painful for Seton Hall’s first year head coach.
“It’s sucks for the seniors, sucks for the guys that don’t have any eligibility left...We got a veteran ball team this is kind of unacceptable for me right? Because we kind of work on this all the time, for us not to
execute down the stretch and pull it out is disappointing,” he said.
The Pirates trailed at the half 32-28 as DePaul made six of its ten attempts from long-range, with Terry making all three of his attempts, Javan Johnson connecting on two of five attempts and Gibson making
one. The Blue Demons also converted nine Seton Hall turnovers into ten points, while the Pirates were only able to muster up three points on 10 DePaul turnovers.
The Hall entered the game ranked 27th nationally in three-point defense, holding teams to 30.6% shooting from long range, but DePaul shot 10-20 (50%) from three for the game compared to just 4-15 (26.7%) for the seventh seeded Pirates.“
Coming into the game that was one of the things that we talked about, Johnson and Gibson shooting. Johnson made some tough ones. They made six in the first half and I really got on my guys at halftime
about it. I thought we did a good job until the last five minutes,” Holloway said.
Seton Hall, which suffered its first Big East opening round loss since 2015, was undone by its two bugaboos all season - turnovers and poor free throw shooting.
“Going 11-18 from the free throw line, that’s an issue. Having 14 turnovers that’s an issue,” Holloway said.
The Pirates started the second half on a 10-3 run capped by a layup from graduate forward KC Ndefo off the dish from Harris and extended their lead to 46-37, its largest of the game, as part of a larger 18-5 run on a layup from junior forward Dre Davis assisted again by Harris.
DePaul answered right back as Johnson nailed back-to-back threes to cut the score to 46-43 with just under ten minutes remaining.
Seton Hall tried to distance itself again, taking a 53-45 lead on a Harris corner three on an inbounds pass from Odukale with seven minutes remaining, but Ongenda, who missed 25 games to start the season
because of wrist surgery, put DePaul on his back and closed the score to 55-52 with a personal 7-2 run that include a dunk and two layups.
The Pirates had chances to extend its lead, but came up short. Senior forward Tyrese Samuel, who led Seton Hall with 16 points and 12 rebounds, missed the front end of two one-and-ones in the final four
minutes and change, which could have extended leads beyond 57-52 and 57-55.
From there, the aforementioned turnovers and lack of offensive execution from Seton Hall coupled with some fearless possessions and made shots by DePaul playing with their backs against the wall flipped
the script in favor of the underdogs.
“I thought we played good defense. If you look at the game, I don't know how many points they scored in the last minute, five or six [eight points], whatever. But if that's not, then they've got 60. I don’t want
to say defense was the issue tonight, because it wasn’t ...I thought our defense was solid. They made some tough shots, you know tip your hat off to them,” Holloway said.
Johnson led DePaul and all scorers with 19, while Ongenda scored 15, Terry contributed 14 and Gibson tallied 10 in the winning effort.
Pacing Seton Hall was Samuel with 16, points, followed by 14 points and eight rebound from Ndefo, while Dawes, Harris and Odukale scored 12, 10 and nine, respectively.
The win snapped DePaul’s twelve game losing streak and marked their first win away from their homecourt, Wintrust Arena in Chicago, since a 78-72 overtime victory at Loyola-Chicago on Dec. 3. The
Blue Demons will square off with second-seeded Xavier with the winner advancing to the Big East semifinals Friday evening.
For Seton Hall, postseason aspirations still remain, just not the tournament they had hoped to make a run in when the season started in the fall.
“If we got an opportunity to keep playing basketball, who wouldn't? I'd love to,” Holloway said about the prospects of accepting an invitation to play in the NIT.
