By Colin Rajala
Seton Hall traveled up the I-95 corridor to Rhode Island Wednesday evening and delivered the 23rd ranked Providence Friars their first home loss of the season, 61-57, in front of 11,458 fans at the Amica
Mutual Pavilion.
The AMP has proved to hold one of the best home court advantages in college basketball in recent years as Providence has only lost four home games in the last three seasons, but the Pirates have been
unphased by the Renaissance City as they have handed Providence two of those losses, including a 82-58 beatdown last season over the then 20th ranked home team.
Providence Head Coach Kim English called Seton Hall a “throwback Big East team” because of their toughness and fight before the game and got exactly that as the Pirates forced 14 turnovers, outrebounded the bigger Friars 38-36, including 11-6 on the offensive glass, and held their ranked opponent to just 23.5% shooting from behind the arc (4-17).
Seton Hall jumped out to an 8-2 lead behind threes from senior guards Kadary Richmond and Dylan Addae-Wusu before Providence answered with a 17-2 run to take a 19-10 advantage with just under 12
minutes remaining in the first half.
The Hall’s physicality along with a switch to a zone defense stymied Providence’s offensive rhythm, propelling the Pirates on a 19-5 run, including holding the Friars to just one field goal over the final eight
minutes, to take a 29-24 lead into halftime.
In typical Big East fashion, both teams battled for much of the second stanza with Providence regaining the lead for the first time in the half, 47-46, on a layup from Corey Floyd off the alley-oop from Devin
Carter with just under seven minutes remaining to force Seton Hall Head Coach Shaheen Holloway to call a timeout.
On its heels in hostile territory and getting no points and just a handful of counting stats from its bench players, Seton Hall’s core was close to running on empty to close the game as the four starters outside of the center position logged 146 of a possible 161 minutes (91%).
The Pirates showed resilience and held tight to secure the victory aided in part by graduate guard Al-Amir Dawes scoring seven of his 12 points in the final five minutes. Dawes connected on two free throws
after drawing a foul driving into the paint with 4:40 remaining and followed it up on the next possession with a triple from the wing for a 55-51 lead, which Seton Hall would not surrender the rest of the way.
With a chance to tie the game at 59 -59 in the closing seconds, Josh Oduro missed a hook shot that was tightly contested by graduate center Jaden Bediako and Addae-Wusu corralled the defensive rebound
before connecting on two free throws for the 61-57 final margin.
Senior wing Dre Davis scored a team high 17 points, including 2-2 from long distance, senior guard Kadary Richmond stuffed the stat sheet in his typical fashion, pacing the Hall with 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Addae-Wusu contributed 12 points and 11 boards.
Providence was led by Oduro’s game-high 23 points, while Devin Carter was the only other Friar in double figures, notching 10 points to go along with 10 rebounds.
