PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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By JP Pelzman
Kevin Willard actually outperformed Jay Wright in the sartorial department by a country mile Saturday, with a dark suit as opposed to Villanova coach Wright continuing to sport his COVID era warmup gear.
But Willard and Seton Hall gladly would have traded all that for a sloppy, unkempt, mangy-looking victory.
At times Saturday, it appeared as though the again-short-handed Pirates had a chance to pull it off, as they rallied from nine points down to go ahead with two minutes left. But a key offensive rebound helped No. 22 Villanova take the lead for good and the Wildcats held on for a closer-than-the-score-indicated 73-67 victory over No. 15 Seton Hall (9-3, 0-2 Big East) at the Prudential Center.
For the second consecutive game, Seton Hall was without big men Ike Obiagu and Tyrese Samuel because of COVID-19 protocols. Villanova was missing Caleb Daniels (9.5 points) for the same reason.
Seton Hall dressed only eight players, and one, Jo Smith, played merely the final six-tenths of a second.
“I thought the guys out there gave great effort and we had our chances,” coach Willard said. “We had two good chances, and you’ve just got to give them credit. (Villanova) really hit the glass in the second half, and I thought that was the difference.”
‘Nova outrebounded Seton Hall, 42-28.
Villanova (9-4, 2-1) took a 54-45 lead on two foul shots by Bryan Antoine with 8:13 left in the game. The Pirates then closed to within 54-51 on a three-point play by Bryce Aiken (22 points) with 6:20 left. Aiken also made a three-point shot 35 seconds later to cut the deficit to 55-54.
Villanova scored the next five points, but The Hall again came back with a 7-0 run led by Aiken, who made four of four free throws and assisted on Jamir Harris’ trey. Aiken’s two foul shots made it 61-60 with two minutes left.
On Villanova’s next possession, Collin Gillespie (21 points) missed a three-point attempt, but the Wildcats were fortunate to get the rebound and Justin Moore made a long two-pointer for a 62-61 lead with 1:36 to go.
Aiken then missed a long three and then Gillespie missed a shot in the lane and again, the Wildcats got the offensive board, with Brandon Slater (17 points) corralling it. He made both free throws and Harris then missed an open three, which was the Pirates’ last chance to tie the score.
Villanova only had a 12-10 edge in second-chance points, but those four were devastating.
“It’s tough, but it is what it is at this point,” Myles Cale said about the lack of depth. “Other teams across the country are going through the same thing, so we try not to look at that as a disadvantage. We just try to focus on the eight people we have and play as hard as we can and do our best to go out there and win this game. A lot of those offensive rebounds could have been ours if we had that extra size.”
It also didn’t help that Alexis Yetna (10 points, eight rebounds) fouled out with 5:53 left and the Pirates trailing, 54-51.
“I think that’s where the players are frustrated more than anything,” Willard said, “because I thought our effort on the defensive end, forcing them to have 17 turnovers, that’s almost impossible to do. But again, it’s kind of a lack of size.
"You’ve got Tray Jackson out there," he added, "usually it’s Ike and Tray or Tyrese and Lex. You’re taking away a 7-footer and a 6’11 guy who are two great rebounders, and they’re a very good offensive rebounding team. They always have been, and where they punish you more than anything is they get threes off their offensive rebounds, and that’s what happened tonight.”
Cale said, “It's still our job to box out and get together and try to rebound and focus.”
Harris said, “It was a very physical game, a lot of physicality on drives, rebounding...cutting through the lane.”
Cale agreed, saying, “That's their thing. They try to be as physical as they can. They’re the most physical team in the Big East, so we just had to be ready for that.”
Wright said, “We in no way came in here thinking, ‘They’re down two starters--this is going to be an easy game.’”
It wasn’t. But it still was a win for Villanova and a loss for The Hall, which must beat Butler on the road Tuesday to avoid an 0-3 Big East start.
“I don’t want our teammates to think we’re in a bad spot,” Cale said, “because we lost two conference games and we can’t make up for them or anything like that. We’re still in a very good spot that we put ourselves in, and we’re going to succeed down the stretch.”
