Men's Basketball Tops Providence, 69-68

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. The Seton Hall men’s basketball team survived to pick up its eighth straight home victory after defeating Providence, 69-68, on Wednesday.  The Pirates had five players in double-figures and forced 20 Friar turnovers, to improve their record to 11-6 overall and 3-2 in BIG EAST play.

Junior Jamar Nutter (Bloomfield, N.J.) knocked down three consecutive shots from well beyond the arc to put the Pirates ahead, 69-65, with 47 seconds left.  Seton Hall missed two front ends of one-and-one free-throw attempts to keep the Friars in the game, but Providence’s Geoff McDermott missed a layup as time expired to seal the win for the Pirates.

Freshman Eugene Harvey (Brooklyn, N.Y) reached double-figures for the 15^th straight game, finishing up with 13 points.  Junior Brain Laing (Bronx, N.Y) added 11 points and nine rebounds.

Freshman John Garcia (Bayshore, N.Y.) and sophomore Paul Gause (Pittsgrove, N.J.) came off the bench to give Seton Hall a boost in the first half.  Garcia, playing his first game of the season, scored four of his six points during a 12-0 run, to give the Pirates a 23-14 lead with 6:46 on the clock. Gause went into half-time with 11 points, as Seton Hall led 37-29 at the intermission.

The Friars (12-5; 2-2 BE) came back to take a 47-45 lead with 13:09 to go.  After trading baskets for the next five plus minutes, the Pirates started to break away after Larry Davis (Middle Village, N.Y.) drained a three-pointer from the wing.  The trey put Seton Hall ahead, 58-53, with 7:28 left.  Providence came within three at, 60-57, when Nutter caught fire from downtown.

Senior Stan Gaines (Chicago, Ill.) and Laing had the tough assignment of guarding 6’10” Herbert Hill most of the way after Grant Billmeier (Pennington, N.J.) went down with an injury.  Hill was dominating the paint in the first half, but Gaines held him to just one field goal in the second frame.