PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
By Colin Rajala
Seton Hall overcame a lethargic opening half in front of a barren Capital One Arena thanks to a three-point barrage to open the second half from senior guard Al-Amir Dawes to notch a 66-51 win over the
Georgetown Hoyas Tuesday evening.
With the victory, The Hall improved to sixth place in conference play with a 3-4 record, while Georgetown remains in the Big East basement at 0-7 and losers of their last 27 Big East matchups to
extend a conference record. The Pirates have won 14 of their last 18 games against the Hoyas and are closing in on tying up the all-time series, which currently stands at 60-57.
Entering the second half knotted at 27-27, senior forward Tyrese Samuel passed the ball off to Dawes on the opening possession and set a screen to give the Newark, N.J. native enough space to drill a three
from the top of the key, his favorite spot to shoot on the floor.
Over the course of the next four minutes and twenty seconds, Dawes would knock down two more triples, both assisted by junior guard Kadary Richmond, and convert a layup on another feed from
Samuel as part of a 13-7 opening of the half to give the Pirates a 40-34 lead, a lead they would not relinquish the rest of evening.
“Al’s been working really hard on his shot,” Head Coach Shaheen Holloway said in a postgame radio interview. “Talked about it at halftime. I ran a play for him coming out of the half. He hit a big shot – he’s
the type of kid, once he sees the ball go in the basket, it becomes real big. It’s a team effort; the guys were looking for him.”
After scoring 11 of the team’s first 13 points to start the second half Dawes finished with a career-high 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including 5-9 from long distance. Dawes recorded 21 points overall in the
second half to spark the Pirates in a game that they had to have as the Pirates look to get back to .500 in conference play.
Samuel chipped in with eight points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals, but the story beyond Dawes’ standout performance was the Seton Hall bench, which outscored all Pirate starters not named Dawes 22-20 and provided meaningful second half contributions when the Hoyas made their push.
Graduate guard Jamir Harris was the team’s second leading scorer off the bench with nine points, regaining his form from long-range on 3-7 shooting, while junior forward Tray Jackson recorded all of his
seven points in the second half to go along with four rebounds and junior forward Dre Davis tallied six points and six rebounds, the majority of which came after halftime.
After The Hall’s 13-7 run, Georgetown cut the lead to four on a layup from junior forward Akok Akok, 40-36, which would be the closest the Hoyas would get the rest of the way. Akok led Georgetown with nine points and six rebounds. Sophomore guards Primo Spears and Jordan Riley also scored nine apiece in the losing effort.
Dawes responded with a personal 7-0 run, including a three from the wing off the dish from Richmond and a layup in transition off a steal and outlet assist from Harris, for a 47-38 advantage to prompt a
timeout from Georgetown Head Coach Patrick Ewing.
The Hoyas would close in on Seton Hall’s lead two more times in the final eleven minutes of the game, but The Hall had an answer each time – first was a Jackson offensive rebound and putback followed up a
minute later with another offensive rebound and dunk. A pair of Davis free throws and a three from Harris extended the lead back to 57-46 to put the game out of reach with seven minutes on the clock.
The Pirates finished the contest shooting 24-63 (38.1%) from the field and 9-24 (37.5%) from three with 13 assists to just eight turnovers, while turning over Georgetown 12 times and holding the home team
to 20-64 (31.3%) shooting from the field and 4-24 (16.7%) from long distance.
Seton Hall returns to action on Saturday with a noon matchup against DePaul at WinTrust Arena as they look to even up their conference record.
