PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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By JP Pelzman
After losing four of last five games to conclude January, Seton Hall turned the page.
Figuratively and literally.
A players-only meeting helped with an attitude adjustment, and as usual, flipping the calendar from January to February also has flipped the script.
Kadary Richmond had 14 points and seven assists and Jamir Harris scored 13 points as Seton Hall had five scorers in double figures and limited Creighton to 22.7% shooting from three-point range and routed the Bluejays, 74-55 before a crowd of 9,062 at the Prudential Center on Friday night.
Myles Cale scored 12 points and Jared Rhoden and Tyrese Samuel each had 11 for the Pirates (14-7, 5-6) who won their second straight game and broke a four-game series losing streak.
With the win over Georgetown, Seton Hall is now 29-17 in the month of February since 2016.
“We got together as a group,” Harris said, “talked a lot of things out and focused our attention on getting out of the slump. That was every guy’s mindset and mentality and we did that.”
Samuel added that the meeting was about “keeping the vibes positive” and “having a short-term memory.”
Well, the positive vibes the Bluejays (13-8, 5-5) had gotten from an upset of UConn on Tuesday night quickly vanished as the Pirates blitzed them immediately.
The Pirates took an 8-0 lead on a jumper by Rhoden and three-pointers by Cale and Tray Jackson, with the latter two baskets both assisted by Richmond. That prompted a timeout by Creighton coach Greg McDermott merely 2:12 into the game.
But it did not matter.
Richmond's trey 29 seconds later made it 11-0, and Seton Hall eventually led 23-3 on a layup by Harris with 9:44 to go off a feed from Richmond. By that time, the Bluejays had shot 1-for-15 (6.7%) from the floor and had committed seven turnovers.
The Pirates took their biggest lead of the half when Harris’ three made it 35-11 with 1:21 left. It marked the Pirates’ largest first-half lead in a Big East game in the Kevin Willard coaching era.
“We just wanted to come out and jump on them,” Willard said, “and make sure they didn’t make any threes early, didn’t get any confidence early. And I thought we were really locked in on trying to get (Alex) O’Connell and (Ryan) Hawkins off the 3-point line.”
O'Connell went 2-for-6 and Hawkins was 0-for-3 from beyond the arc. Creighton finished 5-for-22 and was 1-for-9 (11.1%) from three-point range in the first half.
Harris said, “We came out with the intensity that we needed on the defensive end of the floor from start to finish, especially in the first four minutes of the game.”
Creighton briefly cut into the lead in the second half with an 8-0 run to get within 45-32 on an O’Connell dunk. But five straight points by Cale extended the Pirates’ lead to 50-32. Creighton didn’t get closer than 15 after that.
Seton Hall point guard Bryce Aiken (concussion protocol) missed his fifth consecutive game, but Richmond played well in his absence for the second straight game.
Richmond indicated his mindset was “creating for myself, creating for the other guys on the court and just trying to lead more offensively and defensively.
“I think it’s getting better as time goes, game in, game out,” he added.
“I think you’re starting to see the evolution of a really, really good player,” said Willard, whose confidence in Richmond has not wavered. “It’s hard playing 24 minutes a game and sharing time with a guy to now all of a sudden having to play 38 minutes a game and play three games in five days, so I think he’s handled the responsibility phenomenally.
“I think he’s playing with a lot of confidence,” Willard added, “and I think he’s just starting to evolve into that really, really good point guard.”
Willard offered no timetable on Aiken’s potential return.
As for the two-game winning streak, Harris said, “we've always stayed together, always picked each other up when we’re down. That chemistry goes a long way. The fact that our chemistry is so strong on and off the court has made the process pretty easy for us.”
And tearing that January page off the calendar never seems to hurt for The Hall.
