PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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By Zack Cziryak
In a word: Ugly. All the issues that need to be ironed out by Shaheen Holloway and his Seton Hall Pirates reared their ugly heads on Sunday.
Unforced turnovers, rebounding woes and the lack of a reliable offensive creator were all on display for the Pirates as they dropped to 4-3 following a 60-55 defeat to the Siena Saints in the third-place game of the ESPN Events Invitational on Nov. 27. The Hall finished the event with one win and two losses, dropping a game to Oklahoma on Friday after a buzzer-beater win over Memphis on Thanksgiving night.
Al-Amir Dawes led the way on Sunday with 15 points while Tyrese Samuel chipped in 14 points and seven rebounds for a Pirates squad that was playing without leading scorer Dre Davis, who missed his second game this season due to a knee injury. Javian McCollum paced four Saints in double-figures with 14 points to go along with three assists, two steals and two blocks.
Seton Hall jumped out to a 9-3 lead on the strength of five early Siena turnovers, including an offensive foul, by the first media timeout, extending the lead to 13-5 before experiencing the turnover bug themselves as they have so often in this young season.
Forced turnovers and offensive rebounds, the Pirates gave up seven of the latter in the first 10 minutes of the game, jump starting a 14-1 Saints run that would catapult Siena to a 35-27 halftime lead. The Hall was outrebounded by six at the half while shooting 34% from the field compared to Siena’s 44%, with each team committing 7 turnovers.
The Saints would keep Seton Hall at arm’s length over the first nine-plus minutes of the second half, with McCollum sinking a pull-up three-pointer in front of his own bench to push the lead to 50-42 with 10:39 remaining. That score would remain for nearly two more minutes before Samuel got an elbow jumper to rattle home, beginning a 9-0 run that would give the Pirates the lead.
The Pirate run came across five minutes and would give the Pirates a 51-50 lead capped by a three-pointer from Dawes with 5:52 remaining in regulation. Like Friday night, a Dawes three to reclaim a long-surrendered lead would quickly be relinquished as the Pirates scored only four points for the remainder of the game to Siena’s 10.
The final three minutes saw the Pirates either tied or in a one score game and included two missed free throws and two turnovers, however, down two points with 34.1-second mark gave the Hall a chance to come out of a timeout and either tie or retake the lead. A Dawes left-handed drive resulted in him hitting the bottom of the rim, only for Samuel to grab the rebound and miss an off-balance putback, ultimately encapsulating the Pirates’ early season.
Siena finished shooting only 42.9% from the field, while Seton Hall limited the Saints to 12.5% from beyond the arc. Unfortunately for the Pirates, they shot 32.7% from the floor and 11.2% from three-point land. The Pirates also shot an underwhelming 62.5% from the charity stripe on 32 attempts compared to 69.6% on 23 attempts for the Saints.
The Pirates dished out 10 assists on 17 made baskets and turned the ball over 14 times while forcing 16 Saints turnovers. Dawes paced the Pirates with 32 minutes while Samuel, Odukale and Jamir Harris logged 29 apiece and KC Ndefo notched 24 minutes.
The Pirates return home before flying out to Lawrence, Kan. To face the Kansas Jayhawks at Phog Allen Fieldhouse in the Big East/Big 12 Challenge. Kansas, ranked #3 before the weekend, is coming off a 64-50 loss to #22 Tennessee on Friday.
