PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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By JP Pelzman
After missing the front end of one-and-one opportunities on consecutive possessions late in the first half Wednesday, Seton Hall’s do-everything senior Sandro Mamukelashvili winced at the lost points, obviously chastising himself.
“Missing free throws is the worst thing you can experience in basketball,” he said later. “First of all, it’s free points. … Second of all, it kind of gives you momentum.
“It really messed my head up (missing them),” he added. “But it was more motivational. I had to come back and do better for my teammates.”
Mamukelashvili certainly did that, and visiting DePaul soon would pay for his scathing self-evaluation. He shortly scored on a putback to draw the Pirates to within two points, and added 13 more of his game-high 25 points as the Pirates (13-8, 10-5 Big East) finally (but slowly) crept away to a much-needed 60-52 victory over short-handed but pesky DePaul at the Prudential Center in Newark.
That makes four consecutive victories for the Pirates, who are making a late-season push for a coveted NCAA Tournament at-large berth after a rough stretch in which they lost three straight, including heartbreaking defeats to Villanova and Creighton.
It was a special night for Mamukelashvili, who became the 45th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point plateau, getting to 1,004 by the end of the night.
“It means the world,” Mamukelashvili said of scoring 1,000 points for The Hall. “Coming in, I didn’t know how my career would go. Scoring 1,000 points just shows me how hard I worked and (the dream) really came true.”
“It’s phenomenal that he’s gotten 1,000 points,” coach Kevin Willard said. “He didn’t play that much as a freshman (scoring only 87 points). Even as a sophomore, he played a lot, but he was the seventh wheel. More than anything, it shows that the program is really developing high-level players. It shows you what a high-level player he’s become. … He’s taken on the mantle of being The Man.”
And the Pirates needed him to be The Man to sneak past a DePaul team playing without Charlie Moore (knee) and Javon Freeman-Liberty (shoulder).
Mamukelashvili recorded a second consecutive double-double with 25 points and 11 rebounds, and he shot 10-for-19 from the floor. He scored five straight points to give the Pirates a 49-46 lead, and helped finish that game-turning 9-0 run by stealing the ball from DePaul’s Kobe Elvis and feeding roommate and best friend Myles Cale (11 points) for a resounding dunk and a 51-46 lead.
When the Blue Demons (3-10, 1-10) later crept within 53-52, Mamukelashvili answered with another basket for a 55-52 lead.
“It was not a pretty win,” Mamukelashvili said, “but at this time of the year, all you need is a W.”
Willard echoed that sentiment--up to a point.
“First and foremost,” he said, “winning obviously is the most important thing, especially at this time of the year,” but he quickly added, “we need to play a little better offensively. The last two games, against Marquette and DePaul, we’ve kind of let them dictate how we’ve played offensively.”
Willard continued, calling the Blue Demons and Golden Eagles “two very physical teams, two very athletic teams, but we’ve got to do a better job of being a little more efficient on the offensive end.”
The Hall shot only 37.3% from the field and 30.8% from long distance against last-place DePaul, after connecting for 37% and 26.7%, respectively, against Marquette. This kind of offensive output won’t cut it against the more high-octane offenses in the league, such as resurgent St. John’s, which is scheduled to host the Pirates in the regular-season finale for both teams on March 6.
And other than a 63-48 loss to Creighton last week, even Georgetown (6-10, 4-7) has cranked up its offense since returning from a three-week COVID pause. The Hoyas have scored 73, 86, 74 and 78 points in their other four games, winning three of them. The Pirates will play the Hoyas at their on-campus McDonough Arena on Saturday at 5:30 p.m.
