Seton Hall University
St. John's
MBB Rally Falls Short at St. John's
1/23/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 23, 2014
QUEENS, N.Y. - The Seton Hall men's basketball team suffered its second one-point loss in BIG EAST play this season falling 77-76 to St. John's Thursday at Carnesecca Arena. The Pirates rallied nearly all the way back from a 17-point deficit with nine minutes remaining, but simply ran out of time as the Red Storm held off The Hall for its first conference victory of the year. Sophomore Sterling Gibbs (Scotch Plains, N.J.) recorded a game-high 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting and handed out a team-high four assists for the Pirates in the setback.
The Hall (11-8, 2-4) turned up the pressure on St. John's (11-8, 1-5) in the last minute trailing by as many as six points with 52 seconds remaining. Fuquan Edwin (Paterson, N.J.) converted a three point play with 27 seconds and then with nine ticks on the clock Gibbs knocked down a pair of free-throws to get within 77-76. After a St. John's turnover on the ensuing inbound play, the Pirates gained possession with 4.3 seconds having to go the full length of the court for a shot to win the game. Jaren Sina (Lake Hopatcong, N.J.) got the ball in Edwin's hands, but the 6-foot-6 senior ran into traffic at midcourt as time expired before he could get a shot off.
Brian Oliver (Glassboro, N.J.) scored 19 points and hit five 3-pointers in the contest for the fifth time this season, while Patrik Auda (Brno, Czech Republic) and Edwin finished with 12 points each to round out four Pirates in double-figures. Auda led Seton Hall's rebounding efforts with seven boards.
The Hall had delivered one of its strongest starts of the season unleashing a 13-3 run on the Red Storm in the opening four minutes of the game. Gibbs delivered back-to-back layups and Oliver sank consecutive threes to quickly send the Pirates out to a 10 point lead.
Despite shooting 11-for-22 (50%) in the first half, the Pirates were plagued by 15 turnovers in the stanza which allowed St. John's to carry a 36-29 lead into the break. The Johnnies answered The Hall's run with a 16-5 surge to take its first lead of the game at 10:42 on Jamal Branch's layup. Sina gave Seton Hall its last advantage of the contest with a three at 7:22 in the first half (25-23), before St. John's outscored the Pirates 12-4 by intermission.
Oliver buried three of his first four 3-point attempts in the second half. His fifth 3-pointer of the game came at the 12:26 mark to get within three, before St. John's countered with a 13 straight points. D'Angelo Harrison's jumper with nine minutes on the clock put the Pirates behind by their largest deficit of the night, 65-48.
Auda powered The Hall back into the contest scoring nine of its next 11 points to help spark a relentless push to the finish. Seton Hall outscored the Red Storm 28-12 in the last nine minutes of action, but ran out of time in the comeback bid.
JaKarr Sampson, Orlando Sanchez and Harrison each scored 16 points to lead St. John's. Branch finished with 11 and Sir'Dominic Pointer was the fifth Johnnie in double-figures with 10.
The Pirates have a quick turnaround as they return to the Prudential Center Saturday to host DePaul at 6 p.m. CBS Sports Network has the national broadcast and the Seton Hall radio team of Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin will call all the action on 970 AM WNYM.
