Media release
- Seton Hall has won two-straight and three of its last five entering its BIG EAST opener against St. John’s on Friday inside the Prudential Center.
- The Pirates are coming off of a convincing 78-45 victory over Wagner on Tuesday.
- The win against the Seahawks concluded a stretch of five games in nine days in four different states.
- Junior Ike Obiagu (Abuja, Nigeria) dropped a career-high 20 points on 12-of-15 shooting from the free throw line and posted eight blocks, which ties former teammate Romaro Gill for the most by a Seton Hall player in Prudential Center history.
- The Pirates are 20-21 all-time in BIG EAST openers but they’re 8-2 all-time under head coach Kevin Willard.
- The Hall is also 8-2 under Willard and 23-18 overall in BIG EAST openers at home.
- Seton Hall has won its last six BIG EAST home openers.
- Senior Sandro Mamukelashvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) ranks seventh in the BIG EAST in scoring with 18.5 points per game and he’s tied for 10th with junior Jared Rhoden (Baldwin, N.Y.) in rebounding with 7.2 boards per game.
- With conference play beginning, this is the fewest non-conference games Seton Hall will have played before a BIG EAST game since 1997-98. The Pirates played only five games before facing Villanova on Dec. 2, 1997.
- Seton Hall trails the all-time series with St. John’s, 43-60, but the two teams are knotted up at 34-34 all-time in BIG EAST regular season games.
- The Pirates have won nine of the last 12 games in the series dating back to 2014-15.
- The Pirates are 5-3 all-time against the Red Storm in BIG EAST openers.
- Seton Hall is 9-1 all-time and has won its last six meetings against St. John’s at the Prudential Center.
- The Hall swept the season series against St. John’s last year, winning 82-79 at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 18 and 81-65 on Feb. 23.
- Willard is 11-6 in his career against the Red Storm.
- 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.
- The Pirates had six players in double figure scoring for the first time since Dec. 22, 2013 vs. Eastern Washington.
- 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.
- This week, he was named to the BIG EAST’s Weekly Honor Roll after averaging 20.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in a 2-2 week for the Pirates.
- 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.
- He kicked things off the right way against Louisville where 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.
- 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.
- Over the last two games, Obiagu has looked like that kind of player. 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.
- 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 six 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 10 in the BIG EAST in scoring (15.7 points per game), rebounding (7.2 rpg) and minutes (34.3 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 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 six games.
- Reynolds, Jr. ranks fourth in the BIG EAST in assists (5.7 assists per game), third in steals (2.2 spg) and is tied for fourth in free throw percentage (81.3 pct.).
- His 61.5 three-point shooting percentage (8-of-13) leads 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.
