PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
JP Pelzman
Tray Jackson made his move at the last possible instant, and nestled behind a screen from Ike Obiagu, drained a perfect three as time expired in the first half Saturday.
It was a rare moment of good offensive execution and pretty basketball in what for 40 minutes resembled the hoop version of a traffic jam on the Grand Central Parkway near St. John’s campus. That is, there was plenty of stagnation, very little flow, and a lot of frustrated and angry drivers.
In Seton Hall’s favor was the fact that most of those agitated drivers were members of the Red Storm, who kept going into the paint and having their shots rejected or altered by the 7-2 Obiagu. His seven blocked shots, the all-around play of Alexis Yetna and the offense (21 points) and defense of super senior Myles Cale made the difference for the Pirates in a 66-60 grinder over the Red Storm at Madison Square Garden.
The Pirates (12-5, 3-4 Big East) snapped a two-game slide by limiting St. John’s drive-and-dish offense to 29.3% shooting. Cale, who also had nine rebounds, emerged from a mild defensive slump and limited Red Storm superstar Julian Champagnie to nine points on 3-for-14 shooting.
Only Aaron Wheeler (13 points, 6-for-13) had what could be considered a solid offensive day for the struggling Red Storm (10-7, 2-4), who now must play the Pirates at tiny but historic Walsh Gym on Monday at 9 p.m.
It was Cale who earned Seton Hall the possession that led to Jackson’s trey that tied the score a 28, as he poked the ball away from a dribbling Posh Alexander, creating a turnover.
“I think this was his best game,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said of Cale. “He always plays really well here, but I think this was his best game he’s ever played just because he didn’t settle to be a shooter. I thought he was aggressive, I thought he was getting to the rim and I thought he did a phenomenal job on Champagnie, obviously, because Julian’s one of the best players in the league.”
That's quite a statement about it being his best game, considering Cale, back when he was a sophomore, drilled a three-pointer to knock off Kentucky. That also was at Madison Square Garden.
Cale told reporters of his success at MSG, “It’s a lot of history that goes down here, even coming up to the arena, walking up the little ramp, you just get the chills and you feel good, like you’re just about to play a good game.”
St. John’s actually opened the game with an 8-0 burst, but couldn’t maintain the momentum. But when the Pirates scored the first two baskets of the second half on a driving layup by Kadary Richmond (10 points, eight assists, seven turnovers) and a steal and contested layup by Cale, they went ahead to stay at 32-28.
True, The Hall never completely shook St. John’s, but Yetna’s double-double in the second half alone--10 points and 10 rebounds--helped keep the Red Storm at bay. Yetna finished with 16 points and 15 boards.
Willard said of Yetna, “I think Lex has kind of found a groove of what Big East basketball’s all about. He’s doing a lot of junkyard dog work. He’s doing a lot of things. I think he’s playing very well defensively. He’s rebounding the ball really well. I’d like to see him be a little bit more aggressive in the post at times, but I think he’s playing like a typical high-level Big East player.”
As for Obiagu’s defense, Willard said, “Ikey’s been...a huge difference maker in the way we play, the way he protects the rim, and I think he’s really rebounding the basketball better than he did earlier in the season.”
Perhaps most impressively, the Pirates won on a day when sparkplug guard Bryce Aiken (concussion protocol) sat out and star Jared Rhoden shot 2-for-11. And Richmond was 3-for-19.
Defense and grit made the difference. And now the attention turns to Monday.
“Home games are huge,” Willard said.
As is defense, which The Hall demonstrated Saturday.
