PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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By Tyler Calvaruso
It wasn’t pretty, but Seton Hall accomplished its goal of bouncing back from the manhandling it suffered at Creighton with a win over DePaul on Saturday afternoon.
Despite not registering a field goal over the final 8:57, losing Shavar Reynolds and Ike Obiagu to foul trouble throughout most of the game and a sloppy performance that featured 20 turnovers and numerous stagnant stretches offensively, Seton Hall did enough to leave Chicago with its sixth win of Big East play by a final score of 66-58. Free throw shooting played a big part in the outcome, as the Pirates drained all 14 of their free throw attempts in the second half to ice the game.
“Really proud of the way the guys fought back after not playing well on Wednesday,” Kevin Willard said postgame. “I think we got a little tired late in the second half. We had some good opportunities, but just got a little stagnant on offense and they did a good job. They started reaching and gambling, running toward the ball and...we did a really good job of making our free throws and concentrating.
Balanced play offensively also aided the Pirates’ efforts, as Seton Hall registered assists on 16 of its 26 field goals and Jared Rhoden (18), Sandro Mamukelashvili (15), Myles Cale (11) and Tyrese Samuel all finished in double figures.
“I think we’ve been passing the ball great all year,” Willard said. “I think this is an unselfish group. [DePaul] did a good job of putting a little pressure on us, trying to take away Shavar and reading Jahari, making it tough for us to initiate offense. That’s when we got stagnant. Watching it live, it was tough for us to get back into our stuff offensively, but that’s how DePaul plays. They get after you. They are aggressive defensively. Sometimes, you just have to do what you have to do to get a W.”
Seton Hall took a 40-28 lead into the locker room at halftime after struggling to get going in the opening minutes. That lead ballooned to as large as 19 before the Pirates went cold in the second half and DePaul trimmed its deficit to as little as six with three minutes remaining.
“Sometimes it’s not going to be pretty, especially on the road,” Willard said. Just proud of the guys and the way they battled through for a good W.”
Seton Hall will now have a week to recharge its batteries before Xavier comes to the Prudential Center on Jan. 16. The Pirates got the best of the Musketeers at the Cintas Center, but if history is any indication, Xavier will travel to Newark ready to give Seton Hall all it can handle.
“We might take or three days off,” Willard said. “We’ve played as many games as anybody in the country. We’ve traveled...We might not practice until Wednesday, just because after this break, we have an unbelievably tough schedule. We’re back on the road again. For me, right now, I think we’re in a good spot. We’ve played a lot of games. I just want to make sure we’re rested, we’re healthy...mentally healthy.”
Quick Thoughts
-Jahari Long and Tyrese Samuel were big in this one with Ike Obiagu and Shavar Reynolds in foul trouble. Long really stood out with his ability to weather the storm, registering 17 mostly productive minutes, including some key ones at the end of the game.“
I thought he played great,” Kevin Willard said of Long. “He did exactly what we needed him to do. He was really good on defense. He did a lot of good things on defense. Offensively, he kept us in the flow in the first half, kept us going. That could have been a tough spot for us, but I thought he did a great job of doing what I needed him to do, which was initiate offense, be aggressive at times and be solid on defense. I just thought he played great.”
-It was nice to see Seton Hall do what it had to do at the free throw line to put the game away. Far too many times the Pirates have fallen victim to their inability to knock down clutch free throws, but that was not the case against DePaul. It paid dividends in the end.
-Not a pretty performance by the Pirates by any stretch. A win is a win, but it’s safe to assume Kevin Willard and company would have liked to see a bit more convincing of a performance against a DePaul team that had not played in 11 games. Things turned around at times, but the Pirates still have to work on staying consistent and finishing games strong.
-With that being said...Seton Hall has to like where it is at in the Big East standings nearly halfway into the conference slate. The gauntlet is approaching, but the Pirates are in a good position right now.
