Seton Hall University
St. John's
MBB Rallies, But Falls at St.John's
1/27/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Junior Gene Teague (Vineland, N.J.) scored a career-high 22 points and the Seton Hall men's basketball team rallied from a 16-point second half deficit before falling to St. John's at Madison Square Garden, 71-67, on Sunday.
Teague was 9-for-14 from the floor and grabbed five points to go with his 22 points.
Junior Fuquan Edwin (Paterson, N.J.) narrowly missed his fourth double-double of the season, finishing with 14 points and nine rebounds, but did reach an impressive milestone. The 6-foot-6 swingman entered the contest needing just three points to become the 40th player in Seton Hall history to record 1,000 career points.
Both teams scored at a feverish pace to start the game with teams trading baskets on seemingly every possession. Seton Hall would score, and St. John's would answer back. In fact, the teams traded baskets until Teague grabbed a rebound and scored with 10:54 left in the first half after Tom Maayan (Galil, Israel) had scored the possession before for the first "run" of the game.
Seton Hall (13-7, 2-5) connected on eight of its first 10 shots and five of its first six three-pointers attempted. St. John's wasn't much worse, making seven of their first 11 attempts.
Fuquan Edwin scored on a put-back to give the Pirates a 29-21 lead with 8:53 left to play in the first half. But St. John's picked up their defensive intensity and held Seton Hall scoreless over the next 5:16 to cut the Pirates' lead to 29-27. Teague again scored inside to end the drought, but the Red Storm reeled off the next eight points to take their first lead of the game.
D'Angelo Harrison's three-pointer at the halftime buzzer gave St. John's a 38-33 lead at the break.
After a blistering start, Seton Hall shot 48.3% from the field in the first half, compared to 58.3% by St. John's.
St. John's (13-7, 5-3) continued their torrid shooting to begin the second half, connecting on their first three shots to take a commanding 44-33 lead and forcing an early Seton Hall timeout. Junior Aaron Geramipoor (Manchester, England) scored inside for the first points of the half for the Pirates, but another 6-0 run boosted the Red Storm lead to a robust 51-35 with 15:31 left in the game.
But the Pirates started to chip away at the Red Storm lead. A pair of Teague buckets sandwiched around a three-pointer by Haralds Karlis (Riga, Latvia) provided seven straight points for Seton Hall to cut the St. John's lead to 53-44 with 12:53 remaining.
With St. John's leading 60-50, the Pirates scored nine straight points, five by Aaron Cosby (Louisville, Ky.) and four by Teague, to pull to within just one, 60-59, with 4:21 left to play. But D'Angelo Harrison scored the game's next five points, including a wild fade-away with the shot clock running down to boost the Red Storm lead back to six, 65-59 with 1:29 left.
A three-pointer by Brian Oliver (Glassboro, N.J.) with 1:18 left cut the St. John's lead in half, but they couldn't get closer.
D'Angelo Harrison led St. John's with 24 points and was 9-for-10 from the free-throw line.
Seton Hall will remain on the road when they return to the court on Wednesday, January 30. The Pirates will face Georgetown at the Verizon Center. Game-time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
