Seton Hall University
Providence
MBB Falls to Providence, 67-55
1/13/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
NEWARK, N.J. - The Seton Hall men's basketball team fell behind early and couldn't recover, falling to Providence, 67-55, at the Prudential Center on Sunday.
The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for Seton Hall (12-5, 1-3) against their longtime rival. Providence (9-7, 1-3) now leads the all-time series 46-45.
Fuquan Edwin (Paterson, N.J.) led three Pirates in double-figures with 17 points and hauled in seven rebounds. Sophomore Haralds Karlis (Riga, Latvia) added 11 points in a career-high 34 minutes off the bench.
Turnovers plagued the Pirates from the opening minutes as SHU fell behind 10-2 after five giveaways on the first seven possessions of the game. Following a timeout, Edwin found space in the lane and glided to the bucket for a scoop and a foul, converting on the free-throw to cut the deficit to 10-5 at the 16:03 mark. The Hall would not score again until just over six minutes later however, when a Teague layup ended a run of 12 unanswered PC points. From there, the Pirates mounted a comeback and the second of two old-fashioned three-point plays from Karlis brought SHU back to within single-digits at 28-19 with 4:43 before the break. The Hall settled down on the offensive end, going the final four minutes of the half without committing a turnover but the Friars scored 10 of the last 13 points in the period to take a 38-22 advantage into halftime.
In all, 14 first half Seton Hall turnovers led to 16 Providence points in the period. PC also outscored the Pirates 14-to-2 in second chance points prior to intermission.
The Hall turned over a new leaf to start the second half, finding the mark on seven of their first 11 shots, punctuated by five consecutive points from freshman Tom Maayan (Galil, Israel) that cut the Providence lead to 49-40 with 11:10 to play. The Pirates twice battled to within eight, but Bryce Cotton answered a Kyle Smyth (River Edge, N.J.) tip-in with back-to-back three-pointers to help put the game out of reach down the stretch.
The top scorer in the BIG EAST entering the afternoon, Cotton scored over 20 points for the 11th time this season and led all scorers with 23 points for the Friars.
Seton Hall turned the ball over just three times in the second half, but Providence totaled 20 points off turnovers for the game and outscored SHU 23-to-7 in second chance points.
Smyth finished with five points and a season-high eight boards. Aaron Cosby (Louisville, Ky.) scored in double-figures for the fourth-straight game, turning in 10 points to go with a team-high four assists against only one turnover.
Adding to Sunday's woes was the loss of starting power forward Brandon Mobley (Savannah, Ga.). Mobley left the game with 10:09 remaining in the first half with an apparent right shoulder injury. He did not return.
Seton Hall will take to the road for its next contest as the Pirates head to Milwaukee to face Marquette on Wednesday, January 16. Start-time is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. on the east coast.
