PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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By Colin Rajala
The luster of Saint Peter’s Cinderella run into the Elite Eight last year was all but wiped away by Seton Hall Saturday afternoon as the Pirates notched a decisive 80-44 victory over the visiting Peacocks.
The 36-point Seton Hall win was the first contest between the two programs since 2017, when Shaheen Holloway, then associate head coach for Seton Hall, left to take the helm of Saint Peter’s. With the victory, Seton Hall improved to 65-24 all-time against Saint Peters in a series that dates back to 1932.
Holloway’s first game against his former team had his defensive identity written all over it as Seton Hall’s defense proved to be the differentiator as the Pirates held Saint Peter’s to 27.6% shooting from the field and 20.8% from three on five of 24 from distance.
The Hall’s stymying defensive approach forced six shot-clock violations, drew at least four charges alongside five blocks and four steals to get the crowd of approximately 9,000 out of their seats on multiple occasions.
With so many new faces, four transfers and two freshmen, getting rotational minutes early in the season, Seton Hall’s offense has not found its rhythm quite yet, and that is all right because the Pirates best offense for long stretches of this season might be their defense, evidenced by them outscoring Saint Peters 14-3 in points off turnovers in the first half.
Seton Hall also utilized their size and length advantage to take control of the game early on, outscoring Saint Peter’s 11-0 in second chance points in the first half.
The Hall was led by three players in double figures – returning senior forward Tyrese Samuel, who had 12 points on 5-11 shooting from the field and 2-2 from the free throw line, alongside transfers Al-Amir Dawes and Dre Davis, who did so in reserve roles.
Dawes recorded his first career double-double, 13 points on 4-5 shooting from the field, including one made three, and 4-5 from the free throw line alongside 10 rebounds, while Davis scored 11 second half points to end the game with 13, going 8-8 from the charity stripe.
The Pirates saw another well-balanced performance as four other players, two newcomers and two returnees, tallied at least 6 points in the contest – 9 each from Tray Jackson and Kadary Richmond, 7 from Tae Davis and 6 from KC Ndefo.
Saint Peter’s hung around early thanks to the three-point line as Sophomore Jaylen Murray came off the bench and recorded 10 of the Peacocks first 12 points on 4-5 shooting from the field and 2-3 from behind the arc.
“I don’t like starting off the way we started off, we started off too slow. Our pace is not good, our intensity is not good. We chart deflections, and I think the first four minutes of the game, we had two. That’s not one of my teams, right? And I think once we start getting deflections, the game starts turning around for us, the guys start getting fired up, and we kind of went from there,” Holloway said, in the poste game presser.
Murray was slowed after the second media timeout when Holloway had a chance to go through the scouting report on the sophomore guard.
“We just called a timeout and said, ‘we’ve got to understand their personnel.’ The kid who started, he’s not much of a shooter, he’s a driver, and Jaylen is a shooter. I think our guys didn’t pay attention and they had their hands down, and [Murray] buried it,” Holloway said.
The Peacocks attempted 23 first half shots and 14 were from distance, going 8-23 from the field and 4-14 from three. Seton Hall held Saint Peters without a point from 13:15 in the first half to the 6:24 remaining mark, building its lead from 13-12 to 24-15 before ending the half up 36-23.
The Pirates put the game out of reach at the onset of the second half as the held Saint Peter’s to two points in the first nine minutes, while building their lead to 56-25 with 11:21 left in the game.
The second half offered glimpses off what could make The Hall a difficult out in February/March 2023, displaying better interior passing and stronger rolls to the hoop than the home-opener against Monmouth. Seton Hall also pushed the ball in transition, opting for push ahead passes instead of the dribble to advance, which freed up time and space for the more athletic Pirates to attack the hoop and convert.
“I just think that we’re not there where I want to be, and that’s a good thing. It’s not a bad thing, right? You want to start gelling when Big East play comes, but our non-conference is very hard. We've got to start getting to work, and I just want guys to learn to start playing with each other,” Holloway said.
Seton Hall’s first real test of the 2022-2023 regular season comes on Wednesday, Nov. 16 as the Pirates host Iowa at 7:30 as part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games against the Big Ten.
