PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
By Tyler Calvaruso
The rust was evident for Seton Hall on Friday evening.
After just returning to practice earlier this week following their COVID-19 shutdown, the Pirates could not find their way offensively until late and looked atypically off beat defensively in a 71-70 season- opening loss to Louisville. Takal Molson had a chance to send the game to overtime after being fouled on a three-point attempt with 0.7 seconds remaining, but missed the third free throw after draining the first two.
Seton Hall fought back from a 60-49 deficit with 8:24 left to tie the score with four and a half minutes remaining. Sandro Mamukelashvili rattled home a three to put the Pirates up 65-62 with three minutes left and two Jared Rhoden free throws gave Seton Hall a 68-67 lead with 40 seconds on the clock, but Jj Traynor scored on a putback with 19 seconds remaining to give Louisville the lead for good.
The Pirates also had a chance to take the lead after Traynor’s layup, but Molson could not convert a heavily contested layup at the rim with under 10 seconds remaining and Seton Hall failed to convert a putback attempt.
Seton Hall hung tough with Louisville throughout the first half and were knotted up at 38 with the Cardinals at halftime despite some porous offensive play, but opened the second half shooting 2-14 from the field and 0-6 from three in the first nine minutes of play. As the Pirates struggled to find the bottom of the net, Louisville took advantage and built up a lead that wound up being too much to come all the way back from. Louisville finished shooting at a 43% clip, while Seton Hall struggled to a 33% mark. The Pirates also failed to find their range from deep, shooting 6-23 (26%) from three.
Mamukelashvili led Seton Hall with 22 points, 13 of which came in the second half, and 10 rebounds. Rhoden and Shavar Reynolds both chipped in 11 points.
Next up for the Hall is another road test at Rhode Island on Dec. 2 – unless Kevin Willard can find an opponent for Monday, as he stated on the radio postgame.
Quick Thoughts
-Brutal ending for Seton Hall, but it deserves some credit for hanging in and coming back from a late double-digit deficit. This team is tough as nails, which is essentially the program's M.O. at this point. Nobody wants to start 0-1, but there are positives to take away.
-Bryce Aiken’s injury could have been a lot worse than it was. Obviously not ideal to see him go down so early in the season, but at least he did not aggravate his surgically repaired knee. Aiken’s status moving forward will be key for the Pirates (Willard said after the game he is probably out at least a week), as they looked much more fluent offensively with Aiken running the show.
-It was surprising to see Seton Hall’s defense be an issue, as it is supposed to be the strength of the team. I don’t think there’s much reason to worry right now, though. The Pirates still have a lot to figure out and having such minimal practice time did not help them in this one.
-Rough season debuts for Myles Cale and Ike Obiagu. Cale’s jumper continues to evade him, while Rhoden’s aggressiveness sometimes got the best of him on offense. Obiagu, meanwhile, has to figure out how to stay out of foul trouble. It was a problem last season and it crept up again against the Cardinals.
-Jared Rhoden was more ball dominant than usual (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering Seton Hall needs to deliver offensively) and seemed to be forcing the issue more often than not. There will be an adjustment period as he gets used to being a more prominent part of the Pirates’ offense.
-Takal Molson didn’t have his best game statistically and ended things on about as devastating a note as you can get, but flashed why he is going to be a fit in Kevin Willard’s system on both ends of the floor with his grit. He could team up with Aiken to form a formidable backcourt duo once Aiken returns.
