PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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By Zack Cziryak
Seton Hall’s NCAA Tournament aspirations, slim as they were, came to a crashing end on Friday night at the Prudential Center as they fell to the #16 Xavier Musketeers by a score of 82-60 in front of a lower bowl-sellout crowd in Newark, N.J.
Playing without arguably their best player and creator offensively in Kadary Richmond, the Pirates’ energy and defense kept them in the game for the first 8 or so minutes before the Musketeers ended the half by outscoring the Hall 30-13 and rolling to a 40-21 lead.
Seton Hall began the second half energized, forcing Xavier into turnovers on four of its first 5 possessions and cutting the lead to 8 points by the 16:40 mark. That’s as close as they would come, however, as an Al-Amir Dawes airball from 3-point land preceded a 16-1 Musketeer run that would extend the lead to 23 points.
Xavier’s lead would expand to as many as 29 late in the contest as the Musketeers, who lead the country in assists, dished out 17 on the team’s 29 made baskets compared to 12 assists on 22 made baskets for the Hall.
The Musketeers, playing again without Zach Freemantle, saw four players hit double-digits, led by Big East Player of the Year candidate Souley Boum’s 23 points on 5-8 from beyond the arc. He was complemented by 19 points from Colby Jones, 13 from Adam Kunkel and 12 points and 9 rebounds from Jerome Hunter. Jones scored his 19 points in only 19 minutes of play, shooting 5-10 from the floor, 2-5 from beyond the arc and 7-8 from the charity stripe.
Pirate freshman Jaquan Sanders notched a career-high 11 points in his best collegiate game, adding 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks off the bench, while Dre Davis tallied 13 points and 5 rebounds in his return from several weeks out due to an ankle sprain.
Xavier outshot Seton Hall 48.3% to 38.6%, including 43.5% from beyond the arc to 25% for the Pirates. The Musketeers also outrebounded the Hall 37-24 and outscored them in second chance points 18-10 as well as fast break points at 7-0.
The Pirates return to the Prudential Center on Tuesday night in a senior night send-off against Villanova before completing the regular season on March 4 at Providence.
