Pirates Open Home Stretch vs. Marquette Wednesday (FS1, 8:30 PM)

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Hall and Marquette meet for second time Wednesday on FS1

Feb. 2, 2016

Game 22 // BIG EAST Game 10 // Home Game 12
Seton Hall (15-6, 5-4 BIG EAST) vs. Marquette (15-7, 4-5 BIG EAST)

Date Wednesday, Feb. 3 | 8:30 p.m. ET
Location Prudential Center | Newark, N.J.
Tickets BUY NOW! | Upcoming Home Games | Pre-Paid Parking
Tune in FS1 | FOX Sports GO
Links Live Stats | Seton Hall Radio (PSN) | @SetonHallMBB on Twitter | #HALLin
Notes Media Central | Seton Hall Notes | Marquette Notes


The Tip

Seton Hall makes its way back to Prudential Center on Wednesday to open a three-game home stand by hosting the Marquette Golden Eagles in the second of two scheduled meetings between the two programs this year.

The Hall (15-6, 5-4 BIG EAST) jumped up to fifth in the conference standings with an impressive 75-65 victory Saturday at Creighton as the Pirates' stellar sophomore class continued to make its mark.

Isaiah Whitehead (Brooklyn, N.Y.) poured in a game-high 22 points and handed out six assists while classmates Angel Delgado (Bajos De Haina, Dominican Republic) and Desi Rodriguez (Bronx, N.Y.) each powered their way to double-doubles.

Ismael Sanogo (Newark, N.J.) chipped in a career-high 12 points and eight rebounds as SHU dominated the boards for the second-straight outing, finishing with a +19 advantage on the glass against the Bluejays.

The Pirates also controlled the rebounding battle in an 83-63 victory at Marquette (15-7, 4-5 BIG EAST) to open league play but the Golden Eagles head into Wednesday as winners of their last three. Star freshman Henry Ellenson scored 32 points last time out to lead MU past Butler last time out and keep the Golden Eageles in contention from a spot in the top-half of the BIG EAST standings.

A victory Wednesday would solidify The Hall's spot among the league's top-five while also completing the team's ffirst-ever season sweep of Marquette.

The Buzz

Tune In:Tim Brando and Jim Spanarkel will have the call for the national broadcast on FS1 with tip-off slated for 8:30 p.m.A live stream of the game will also be available online and on mobile devices through the FOX Sports GO app
The Seton Hall radio team of Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin can be heard on AM970 The Answer (WNYM) with a simulcast available online at PirateSportsNet.tv as well as channel 81 on both Sirius and XM radio.

Follow Us:

For exclusive content and coverage throughout the season and especially on gameday, be sure to follow @SetonHallMBB on Twitter

Tickets

Tickets to upcoming home games are available and can be purchased online through Ticketmaster, by calling the Seton Hall Athletics Ticket Office at (973) 275-HALL (4255) or visiting the Prudential Center Box Office on gameday. The Hall will be opening a three-game stretch at home that will also include matchups with Georgetown (2/6, 9 PM) and Butler (2/10, 6:30 PM).

Pirate Points


- The Hall jumped out to a 13-point halftime lead Saturday in Omaha and 17 second half points from Isaiah Whitehead helped hold off a comeback attempt from the Bluejays as the Pirates jumped Creighton in the BIG EAST standings with a 75-65 win. Whitehead equaled a season-high with 22 points - just three shy of his career high - and handed out six assists as Seton Hall earned a split of the season series while winning at the CenturyLink Center Omaha for the second consecutive year.

- Whitehead’s stellar play helped him earn BIG EAST and Met Writers Player of the Week honors for the first time in his career as he finished a 2-0 week with averages of 20.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in victories over St. John’s and the Bluejays. A two-time BIG EAST Rookie of the Week and All-Rookie Team selection as a freshman, Whitehead is the fifth different Pirate to earn conference Player of the Week honors under Kevin Willard. The Brooklyn native has also been named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll three times this season and is one of five Pirates in the last 20 years to capture both Rookie and Player of the Week honors during their career, three of which have played under Willard. The other four all rank among the program’s top-25 scorers all-time.

SETON HALL PLAYERS NAMED BIG EAST ROOKIE AND PLAYER OF THE WEEK (SINCE ’95-’96)
• Shaheen Holloway ‘00 (14th on scoring list) - Rookie: 5 times in 1996-97 Player: 1 time in 1999-00
• Darius Lane (24th on scoring list) - Rookie: 6 times in 1999-00 Player: 1 time in 2000-01
• Jeremy Hazell ‘11 (3rd on scoring list) - Rookie: 1 time in 2007-08 Player: 1 time in 2008-09, 1 time in 2009-10
• Fuquan Edwin ‘14 (12th on scoring list) - Rookie: 1 time in 2010-11 Player: 1 time in 2012-13
• Isaiah Whitehead - Rookie: 2 times in 2014-15 Player: 1 time in 2015-16

 

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- Whitehead has asserted himself as one of the league’s top threats with the ball in his hands this season, increasing his season totals to six 20-point games and nine with 15+ pts and 5+ ast with the effort at Creighton. During BIG EAST play, he has scored in double-figures in all nine games while his 46 assists have directly led to 103 total points. Whitehead has accounted for 10+ points through his assists six times in nine conference outings including four of the last five.

- With two consecutive double-doubles, Angel Delgado has returned to the form that earned him a BIG EAST Rookie of the Year selection last season. Delgado posted gaudy averages of 14.0 ppg and 14.5 rpg to help the Pirates finish last week unbeaten and has grabbed 7+ boards in each of the last five outings - averaging 11.0 rpg over that stretch.

- As a freshman, Delgado pulled down 10.7 rpg in 18 BIG EAST contests, becoming the first rookie to win the league’s rebounding title since Troy Murphy (Notre Dame) in 1998-99. Delgado enters Wednesday’s marquee matchup with Marquette’s Henry Ellenson with 86 rebounds in conference play, just four behind the conference-leading pace of 90 set by Ellenson. Delgado is seeking to become the first player to win back-to-back BIG EAST rebounding crowns since Luke Harangody did so from 2007-09. Murphy also returned to lead the league on the glass as a sophomore and the last member of a current BIG EAST program to accomplish the feat was Providence’s Michael Smith who won three-straight from 1991-94.

- Seton Hall absolutely dominated the boards as a team against Creighton and St. John’s, finishing with a 102-to-67 advantage on the glass over the two-game stretch. The +19 differential against the Bluejays (46/27) was the Pirates’ highest in a BIG EAST game this season - topping the +16 mark The Hall registered against both St. John’s (56/40) and Marquette (49/33). Prior to this season, SHU had not posted an advantage as high as +15 on the boards against a BIG EAST opponent since out-rebounding Rutgers, 56-to-41, in an 85-74 win on March 4, 2010. Entering Wednesday, the Pirates lead the league with 42.8 rpg in conference play

- Delgado and Whitehead are part of an all-sophomore starting five that accounted for 66 of the team’s 75 points in the win over Creighton. The performance marked the fourth-straight game and the 16th time this season that the group has combined for 50+ points in a single game. For the season, Seton Hall’s sophomores have scored 1193 points, a figure that represents 76.6 percent of the team’s 1,558 total points

- Ismael Sanogo, who has quietly been one of the most important members of the sophomore class, is coming off arguably his best performance of the season as he recorded 12 pts, 8 reb and 3 stl against Creighton. One of the most versatile players in the BIG EAST, Sanogo can guard anyone on the floor and is the lone player in the conference who ranks in the top-12 in rebounding (7.5 rpg, 6th), steals (1.6 spg, 5th), and blocks (1.2 bpg, 11th)

- With his thunderous dunks and ability to fill it up in a hurry, Desi Rodriguez has made a little more noise on his way to becoming one of the top wing players in the conference. Rodriguez has been essential to The Hall’s success on the offensive end averaging 12.3 ppg and shooting 51.5 percent from the floor with a 43.6 percent mark from deep in the team’s 15 wins. Rodriguez has been steady, shooting 50.5 percent from the field in six losses but the difference this season has been his 3-point shooting where 17 of his 22 treys have come in a winning effort. Rodriguez sank just 1-of-12 3-point attempts in 31 appearances as a freshman.

- With a win Saturday, the Pirates reached the 15-win plateau for the fifth consecutive season. This marks the first time since 1990-95 that The Hall has posted 15+ victories in five-straight years. SHU Athletics Hall of Famer PJ Carlesimo led the Pirates for the first four years of the stretch while George Blaney took over prior to the 1994-95 campaign. Sixth-year head coach Kevin Willard is the first Seton Hall coach to be at the helm for five consecutive 15+ win seasons in the BIG EAST era and is the first SHU head man to accomplish the feat since Bill Raftery did so in six-straight years from 1973-79. Including Raftery and Willard, eight different coaches have led SHU during that span.

- With 75 points at Creighton, Seton Hall has scored 70+ points in five-straight BIG EAST games during the same season for the first time since 1994-95. SHU is 11-3 when scoring 70 or more this season and 20-5 when doing so over the last two years.

- The Pirates’ success has also been fueled by a stout defensive effort as SHU has allowed 74 points or less in seven of nine BIG EAST outings and kept three opponents under the 70-point mark, a group that includes an 83-63 win at Marquette to begin the league slate. After yielding just 62.5 ppg in two wins last week, The Hall currently sits second in the conference with 66.7 points allowed per game overall.

- A victory Wednesday would give SHU its first-ever season sweep of Marquette and move the Pirates to 6-4 in BIG EAST play for the first time since 2005-06

- Seton Hall Athletics announced last week that in the fall, student-athlete academic performance reached a new all-time high for the 11th-straight semester. Head coach Kevin Willard’s squad boasts six Dean’s List honorees from the fall (Angel Delgado, Derrick Gordon, Michael Nzei, Desi Rodriguez, Veer Singh, Isaiah Whitehead) and increased its cumulative GPA to 3.18. The Willard-led Pirates earned an NCAA Public Recognition Award over the summer for posting a multiyear APR that ranks among the top-10 percent among all men’s basketball teams and are part of a collection of 14 varsity programs at The Hall that all own a cumulative GPA over 3.1.

Scouting Marquette
- Marquette heads into Wednesday having won its last three, most recently scoring a 75-69 win over Butler behind a monster 32-point, 10-rebound effort from Henry Ellenson who was named BIG EAST Rookie of the Week Monday. The current winning streak also includes a win at St. John’s (78-73, 1/24) and a comfortable home victory over Stetson (74-60, 1/27)

- The former McDonald’s All-American Ellenson is a unique talent who ranks sixth among high-major freshmen with 16.3 ppg, third among all freshmen with 10.0 rpg and second among rookies behind LSU’s Ben Simmons (15) with 13 double-doubles. Though he recorded one of those double-doubles against The Hall, Seton Hall sophomore Ismael Sanogo was able to limit him to 3-of-14 (.214) from the field - his second-lowest number of made field goals this season (1-of-8 vs. Iowa, 11/19)

- Red-shirt sophomore Duane Wilson scored 13 points off the bench in the BIG EAST opener against the Pirates and has gone on to lead the team in scoring in three of the following eight conference games. Wilson came off the bench in the first seven league contests but after scoring 19 as a reserve against DePaul, he has assumed a starting role for the last three outings overall; taking over for Sandy Cohen III

- The Pirates totaled 17 second chance points to 12 for the Golden Eagles in the first meeting and MU has had difficulty generating second opportunities since the start of league play. Marquette ranks last in the conference with 7.7 offensive rebounds per game against BIG EAST opponents and has finished with less than 10 second chance points seven times in nine conference outings. Seton Hall tops the BIG EAST with 14.2 offensive rebounds per game and the Pirates have finished with at least 16 second chance points in each of the last three games

- Freshman Traci Carter erupted to go 5-of-7 from downtown against the Bulldogs last time out as part of an effort in which Marquette went 10-of-17 (.588) from deep as a team. Despite the outburst, Marquette has totaled 44 3-pointers through nine BIG EAST games - the lowest mark in the conference - and ranks seventh with a 32.1 3FG%. SHU limited the Golden Eagles to 1-of-11 from beyond the arc on their home floor in the first meeting this season





The Last Meeting

Seton Hall 83

Marquette 63
December 30, 2015
Milwaukee, Wis.


Big Second Half Propels The Hall to 83-63 Win at Marquette

The Pirates held Marquette to 25.8 percent shooting in the second half while having a huge offensive outburst in an 83-63 road win to open BIG EAST play.

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