PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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College basketball games are 40 minutes long and Seton Hall needed nearly every second of its contest on Wednesday night to pull out a W.
Fifth year transfer KC Ndefo dropped in a putback off an offensive rebound with 1.6 seconds left as the Pirates battled back from a 14-point deficit at the half and one as large as 17 to snag the program’s first victory against a ranked opponent in the Shaheen Holloway era with a 67-66 decision over #15 Connecticut on Wednesday night at the Prudential Center.
UConn was led by Assistant Coaches Luke Murray and Tom Moore in the absence of both Head Coach Dan Hurley and Associate Head Coach Kimani Young, neither of whom made the trip to Newark after testing positive for COVID-19.
Kadary Richmond posted an 18 point and 10 rebound double-double to pace the Pirates, who also saw Ndefo notch 14 points and 8 rebounds and Al-Amir Dawes round out the double figure scoring for Seton Hall with 11 points.
UConn was led by Adama Sanogo with 16 points and five rebounds, while Jordan Hawkins added 13 points and 6 rebounds and Tristan Newton tallied 11 points. Andre Jackson also notched 5 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists for the Huskies.
Despite a distinct size disadvantage against the likes of Sanogo and UConn’s 7-foot freshman center Donovan Clingan that saw the Huskies outrebound Seton Hall 38-30, the Pirates did manage to post a 34-26 advantage in points in the paint and corralled 11 offensive rebounds, only 1 behind UConn.
The Pirates made one more field goal than the Huskies on an identical 56 shots apiece, while the road team outshot the Pirates from beyond the arc at 39.1% to 19%.
Seton Hall won the game on the defensive side of the ball after a lackluster first half that saw the Huskies put up 40 points. The Hall turned 18 turnovers – including 12 in the second half - into 15 points while only giving up 6 points off their own on 9 turnovers in addition to out-stealing the Huskies 8 to 4 and out-blocking them 6-2.
The Pirates also rode a year-long trend of sub-par, but volume free throw shooting, knocking down 17 of 25 from the charity stripe for 68% compared to 13 of 14 for Connecticut.
Seton Hall has now won 4 straight and 5 of 6 Big East contests after starting the conference season at 0-3. Meanwhile, the Huskies drop to 4-5 in the Big East, a full game behind the Pirates for 5th place in the conference standings, and have lost 5 of 9 since completing a perfect 11-0 non-conference slate.
The Pirates return to the Rock for another ranked opponent when the #20 Marquette Golden Eagles visit Newark, N.J. following a home victory over #22 Providence on Wednesday night.
