Hall Closes Road Swing at Georgia Sunday
12/20/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Watch ESPN l Game Notes l l Live Audio
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - After successfully dispatching USF on Thursday, the Seton Hall men's basketball team will look to close a two-game road swing with yet another victory when the Pirates tangle with Georgia on Sunday evening in what will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
At 9-1 through 10 games, The Hall sits in a dead-heat for second place in the BIG EAST and is on the precipice of cracking the top-25 for the first time since 2012 after receiving votes in both the AP and coaches poll in each of the last two weeks.
A second-straight win away from home, one that would be Seton Hall's fifth such victory this season, would go a long way towards opening that door.
In Tampa, it was a balanced offensive showing that led SHU past the Bulls as five players scored in double-figures during an 89-69 triumph - the Pirates' first 20+-point victory on the road since an 87-61 rout of Longwood on December 23, 2011.
Freshman Angel Delgado (Bajos De Haina, Dominican Republic) led the charge, finishing with a personal-best 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting to go with a team-high six rebounds. Delgado has been on a torrid offensive run, misfiring on just seven of his 33 shot attempts over the last six contests (26-33 .788) while maintaining his perch atop the conference's rebounding rankings (9.6/game).
Delgado's dead-eye touch was part of a larger effort in which The Hall knocked down better than 53 percent of its total shots (28-52, .583) but the difference came from beyond the arc where the BIG EAST's most efficient 3-point shooting team simply out-classed the Bulls.
Sophomore Jaren Sina (Lake Hopatcong, N.J.) and Haralds Karlis (Riga, Latvia) each buried three triples as the Pirates' totaled 11 for the game, one off their season -high which came in the Paradise Jam championship against Illinois State.
The effect was compounded as SHU limited USF to 0-for-9 from long distance, holding its opponent without a single 3-pointer for the first time in nearly a decade, a stretch that spanned 309 games back to a 77-68 loss against Connecticut on January 17, 2005.
At Georgia, Seton Hall encounters a foe that has won its last two and is coming off two weeks rest after downing Colorado by seven points in its last outing on December 7. The Bulldogs were pegged to finish fifth in the 14-team SEC after recording the 12th 20-win season in program history a year ago and advancing to the second round of the NIT.
UGA is unbeaten in Athens this season and has only dropped one game to a non-conference opponent at home over the last two.
Fifth-year senior Marcus Thornton is the protagonist on both ends of the floor and the 6-foot-8 forward ranks among the top-eight in the SEC in both scoring (14.9 ppg) and rebounding (7.0 rpg).Thornton heads the Bulldogs' own balanced attack as guards Charles Mann and Kenny Gaines and frontcourt mate Nemanja Djurisic also post better than 10 points per game.
Head coach Kevin Willard has led the Pirates to two wins in four tries against SEC opponents in his time at the helm in South Orange, going 2-0 against the state of Alabama with victories over the Tide and Auburn. The Hall fell to LSU in its last trip to SEC country however (72-67, 11/29/12) and will look to head into its final non-conference game with just one loss for the second time in five years under Willard.
Tip-off is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. with a live national telecast available on ESPNU and the Watch ESPN app. The Seton Hall radio team of Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin will have the call for AM970 (WNYM) and the Pirate Sports Network on SHUPirates.com.
