Media release
SHAVAR CONTINUES TO GRIND
- Seton Hall has won three-straight and four of its last six games entering its first BIG EAST road contest of the season at Marquette on Thursday.
- The Pirates are coming off of a 77-68 win over St. John’s in their first conference game of the season.
- In the win, the Red Storm did not have an answer for senior Sandro Mamukelashvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) as he posted a career-high 32 points with nine rebounds and three assists.
- Head coach Kevin Willard improved to 9-2 in BIG EAST openers with the win.
- The Hall is looking to start 2-0 in the BIG EAST for the fourth-consecutive season and the sixth time in the last seven years.
- Of Seton Hall’s nine previous 2-0 BIG EAST starts, seven resulted in NCAA Tournament appearances.
- Last season, the Pirates were true road warriors as they went 8-4 in road games with all eight wins coming against Quad 1 opponents.
- Seven of those eight victories came against BIG EAST teams on the road, a school record.
- Mamukelashvili ranks third in the BIG EAST with 20.4 points per game and ninth with 7.4 rebounds per game. Tied with him in the latter category is junior Jared Rhoden (Baldwin, N.Y.).
- Senior Shavar Reynolds, Jr. (Manchester, N.J.) ranks third in the conference with 5.6 assists per game.
- The Pirates are 11-19 all-time against Marquette but they’re 9-8 since the BIG EAST’s reconfiguration in 2013-14.
- Seton Hall has won the last four games in the series by an average score of 8.5 points.
- Willard is 8-7 all-time against Marquette with head coach Steve Wojciechowski at the helm.
- The Pirates went 2-0 against Marquette last season, winning by nine in Milwaukee (88-79) on Feb. 29 and by 14 in Newark (69-55) on Jan. 11.
- The two teams were supposed to clash again in the Pirates’ first game of the 2020 BIG EAST Tournament before it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- In the early goings of his senior season, Sandro Mamukelashvili is living up to the preseason accolades and expectations bestowed upon him.
- “Mamu”, as he’s affectionately known, was named to the Preseason All-BIG EAST first team and watch lists for the Naismith Trophy and the Karl Malone Award in the preseason.
- He was named to the BIG EAST’s Weekly Honor Roll for the second consecutive week after scoring a career-high 32 points with nine rebounds in the win over St. John’s on Dec. 11.
- In the comeback win at Penn State, Mamukelashvili dropped a career-high 30 points – 22 of which came in the second half – to go along with five rebounds and four assists.
- Mamukelashvili is Seton Hall’s first power forward/center to register multiple 30-point performances in a season since Arturas Karnisovas in 1993-94.
- He kicked the season off the right way against Louisville where he led the Pirates with 22 points and 10 rebounds for his eighth career double-double.
- His second double-double in three games came against Rhode Island where he put up 25 points and 10 rebounds.
- Mamukelashvili’s strong start follows a difficult 2019-20 season that saw him lose 10 games due to a wrist injury and go through the NBA Draft process over the summer before electing to return for his senior year.
- He averaged 15.1 points and 7.8 rebounds while shooting 57 percent from the field and 50 percent from three over the final eight games of 2019-20.
- Playing its fourth game in seven days, Seton Hall trailed at Penn State by 19 points and instead of playing out the string, the Pirates played to win.
- Seton Hall scored 50 second-half points to force overtime, and then senior Shavar Reynolds, Jr. (Manchester, N.J.) sank the three-pointer that put the Pirates up for good in a 98-92 win over the Nittany Lions.
- It’s the largest deficit Seton Hall has overcome in a game since coming back from down 23 to beat Robert Morris on Nov. 18, 2007, and it’s the largest road comeback since at least 2007-08 when the Pirates pieced together a 15-point comeback at Providence on Jan. 24, 2008.
- The Hall had trailed 37-18 with just over six minutes to go in the first half, trailed at halftime by 11, 45-34, took a three-point lead, 56-53, with 14:31 to go second half and then trailed by eight, 84-76, with 1:58 remaining in regulation before coming back yet again.
- It was The Hall’s first true road non-conference overtime victory since a 76-75 win over Stanford on Nov. 22 1985.
- The Pirates had six players in double figure scoring for the first time since Dec. 22, 2013 vs. Eastern Washington.
- Following the graduation of BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year Romaro Gill, the Pirates were expecting fellow seven-footer Ike Obiagu to slide into the role of shot blocker and pick and roll nightmare entering this season.
- Obiagu looked like that kind of player when he put up 10 points at Penn State and a career-high 20 points on 12-of-15 shooting from the free-throw line with eight blocks against Wagner.
- His eight blocks tied Gill for the most by a Seton Hall player in Prudential Center history.
- Obiagu has improved immensely from the charity stripe where he started with a 31.6 percent clip as a freshman to a 63.3 percent clip through seven games this season.
- His impressive performance in the win over Wagner was only the fifth 20-point and eight block performance in program history since 1975:
- Ike Obiagu vs. Wagner, Dec. 8, 2020
- Eddie Griffin vs. Syracuse, Jan. 21, 2001
- Eddie Griffin vs. Central Connecticut State, Dec. 31, 2000
- Eddie Griffin vs. Norfolk State, Dec. 4, 2000
- Glenn Mosley vs. St. John’s, Jan. 22, 1975
- Junior Jared Rhoden (Baldwin, N.Y.) is contributing in multiple areas for the Pirates this season and is picking up where he left off late last season.
- He currently ranks in the top 15 in the BIG EAST in scoring (14.1 points per game), rebounding (7.4 rpg) and minutes (33.4 mpg).
- Rhoden turned in a solid showing in the season opener at Louisville (11 points, six rebounds, three assists), but he really showed what kind of player that Kevin Willard and preseason prognosticators thought he could be in the Pirates’ three wins this season.
- Rhoden registered his second double-double of the season and the fourth of his career with game-highs of 22 points and 11 rebounds in the victory over Wagner on Dec. 8.
- He was two boards shy of a double-double in the comeback win at Penn State where he grabbed eight rebounds, put up 15 points and chipped in three assists and two steals.
- Rhoden erupted with a career-high 26 points to go along with 10 rebounds against the Gaels, his first double-double of the season.
SHAVAR CONTINUES TO GRIND
- Shavar Reynolds, Jr.’s Seton Hall career began as a scrappy role player. He’s since turned himself into the Pirates’ starting point guard through the season’s first seven games.
- Reynolds, Jr. ranks third in the BIG EAST in assists (5.6 assists per game), tied for third in steals (2.0 spg) and third in free throw percentage (83.3 pct.).
- His 53.3 three-point shooting percentage (8-of-15) ranks third in the conference among players with a minimum of 10 attempts.
- His propensity to hit big shots started with his game-winning three-pointer vs. St. John’s in 2018-19. It returned on Dec. 6 at Penn State when he hit a three with under 50 seconds left in overtime to put the Pirates ahead for good, 93-91.
- In the win over Iona, Reynolds, Jr. dished out a career best eight assists to go along with five steals and five points.
- Reynolds, Jr. posted a career-high 17 points, shot 4-of-5 from beyond the arc and dished out eight assists against No. 21 Oregon.
- Reynolds, Jr.’s workmanlike nature can be credited to his upbringing – his mother, Teekemia, is a social worker and his father, Shavar, Sr., is a retired U.S. Navy Master at Arms who served for 21 years.
