Seton Hall University
20-7,12-3Big East
St. John's
14-13,3-11Big East
Pirates Weather Red Storm with Wire-to-Wire Win, 81-65
2/23/2020 4:15:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The victory is Seton Hall's 20th of the season, marking the fifth straight year it has reached the plateau, a program record. It's also the Pirates' 12th BIG EAST victory, leaving them with a one-game lead in the standings going into the season's penultimate week.
Seton Hall's stout defense held the Red Storm to 9-for-37 shooting in the first half.
Senior Myles Powell (Trenton, N.J.) led The Hall with 18 points, five rebounds and four assists in only 28 minutes of action. Junior Sandro Mamukelashvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) had a strong game with 16 points to go with a team-best 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Sophomore Jared Rhoden (Baldwin, N.Y.), senior Romaro Gill (St. Thomas, Jamaica) and junior Myles Cale (Middletown, Del.) also reached double-figures in scoring for The Hall.
That's 5️⃣ straight 𝟚𝟘 𝕨𝕚𝕟 𝕤𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕠𝕟𝕤 for the Pirates!#HALLin pic.twitter.com/5gTrrzewuE
— Seton Hall Basketball (@SetonHallMBB) February 23, 2020
What Happened:
The Pirate defense was on display from the start, limiting St. John's to just two made field goals in its first 15 shots over the game's first 6:24. During that time, The Hall was able to build a 13-4 advantage early on. After St. John's Marcellus Earlington ended the Red Storm drought, the Pirates took off again with a 12-2 run and a layup by Mamukelashvili gave Seton Hall a commanding 25-8 lead with 7:13 to go before halftime.
St. John's finally got its offense going a bit, but still only shot 24.3% from the floor in the first half as Seton Hall took a 36-22 lead into the break.
The Red Storm scored the first seven points of the second half and kept Seton Hall without a field goal for the first 3:35, cutting the Pirates' lead to seven points, 38-31 with 16:25 left to play. The Pirates however, methodically built their lead back up and an alley-oop dunk by Gill off a lob pass from freshman Tyrese Samuel (Montreal, Quebec) pumped their lead back up to 16 at 55-39 with 11:42 remaining.
With a pair of free-throws by Cale, the Pirates took their largest lead of the day, 77-54, with 3:17 left in the game. Cale finished the game with an eye-popping 360 dunk.
All of the 🎥 you need from today's win over the Johnnies!
— Seton Hall Basketball (@SetonHallMBB) February 24, 2020
Next up ⏭ at Marquette on Saturday#HALLin pic.twitter.com/asStxkWSMs
Inside the Numbers:
- Seton Hall was 27-for-56 (48.2%) from the floor for the game, while St. John's was 24-for-71 (33.8%). The Hall was 8-for-28 (28.6%) from three-point range, while the Red Storm were 5-for-20 (25.0%).
- The rebounding battle was even, 40-to-40, but St. John's had a 17-to-10 edge in offensive rebounds and a 16-to-9 advantage in second chance points.
- Seton Hall was 19-for-23 (82.6%) from the free-throw line, while the Red Storm were 12-for-13 (92.3%).
- Seton Hall forced 14 turnovers, while St. John's forced 18. Seton Hall had 19 points off turnovers, compared to 17 for St. John's.
- Powell had a team-high 18 points to go with five rebounds and four assists.
- Mamukelashvili notched 16 points along with a team-high 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals. It was his sixth career double-double.
- Rhoden finished with 14 points on the strength of 3-for-4 shooting from three-point range.
- Gill was 6-for-6 from the field, finishing with 12 points, six rebounds and three blocks.
- Cale had 10 points, five rebounds and two steals.
The ‼, brought to you by @Killem_Myles 😤#HALLin pic.twitter.com/rfp0NIJHMP
— Seton Hall Basketball (@SetonHallMBB) February 23, 2020
News & Notes:
- The victory improves Seton Hall to 20-7 overall and 12-3 in the BIG EAST, while St. John's falls to 14-13 overall and 3-11 in conference play.
- The Hall's victory is its 20th of the season. It's the fifth straight year that the program has reached the 20-win plateau, a Pirate record.
- Seton Hall's 12th BIG EAST win equals the 2015-16 and 1991-92 teams for second-most in program history. The 1992-93 team had 14 wins.
- Seton Hall has now swept the regular season series from Georgetown, DePaul, Butler and St. John's.
- Seton Hall has now won nine of its last 12 games against St. John's and six straight against the Red Storm at Prudential Center. Furthermore, head coach Kevin Willard is now 11-6 against St. John's.
- Powell reached double-figures in scoring for the 21st time this season and the 100th time of his career.
- Seton Hall is now 137-62 (.688) all-time at the prudential Center, which includes a 65-51 (.560) mark against BIG EAST competition.
- Seton Hall shot 82.6% from the free-throw line today. It's the fifth straight game that the Pirates have shot 81.5% or better.
- This was the first time since the season opener vs. Wagner that the Pirates had five players in double-figure scoring.
- The Pirates are now 100-13 (.885) since the start of the 2015-16 season when holding a seven-point lead or better at any juncture of a contest.
- Seton Hall is guaranteed a top-four seed in the BIG EAST Tournament for the third straight season and fourth time in the last five years.
Seton Hall will return to action on Saturday, Feb. 29, when it travels to Milwaukee to face BIG EAST rival Marquette. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Eastern. The game will be televised nationally on FOX with Tim Brando and Donny Marshall on the call and Lisa Byington on the sidelines. Dave Popkin and John Fanta will be in the Fiserv Forum radio booth bringing all the action on WMCA 570 AM, simulcast on Sirius 105, XM 202 and the Pirate Sports Network.
