Richmond, No. 24 Pirates Outlast UConn in Overtime Thriller, 90-87

Saturday, January 8

Newark, N.J.

12 p.m.

Seton Hall University

11-3,2-2Big East

Connecticut

10-4,1-2Big East

OT 1

UConn

Seton Hall

Richmond, No. 24 Pirates Outlast UConn in Overtime Thriller, 90-87

1/8/2022 2:50:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score BOX SCORE (.pdf)

Richmond scores a career-high 27 points and Jared Rhoden tallies his 1,000th career point in the victory.

NEWARK, N.J. – Sophomore Kadary Richmond (Brooklyn, N.Y.) scored a career-high 27 points and senior Jared Rhoden (Baldwin, N.Y.) reached 1,000 points for his career as the No. 24 Seton Hall men's basketball team outlasted Connecticut, 90-87, in overtime at the Prudential Center on Saturday.

Richmond was brilliant, scoring 25 of his 27 points in the second half, including a stretch where he, alone, outscored the Huskies, 17-7. He was 10-for-13 from the floor and 6-for-8 from the free-throw line. Rhoden finished with 15 points and six rebounds to become the 47^th player in history to record 1,000 career points in a Seton Hall uniform. Another record was broken early in the game as graduate student Myles Cale (Middletown, Del.) became the program's all-time leader in career games played with 136.

Graduate student Bryce Aiken (Randolph, N.J.) erupted for 22 points, including seven points in overtime, and a team-best seven assists with just two turnovers. Tray Jackson (Detroit, Mich.) was a fourth Pirate to reach double-figures in scoring. He had 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting.

What Happened:
Trailing 36-28 late in the first half, Rhoden drilled a deep straight-away three-pointer and Samuel followed with a layup to cut The Hall's deficit to 36-33 with 3:17 left before halftime. Connecticut took a 41-37 lead into the break. Both teams shot better than 50.0% from the floor in an evenly-played first 20 minutes. The Hall had a slim 15-to-13 advantage on the glass, but UConn forced two more turnovers.

Seton Hall scored the first five points of the second half, and a three-pointer by Aiken gave the Pirates a 42-41 advantage. UConn responded, however, with a 13-3 run, fueled by a trio of three-pointers, giving the Huskies a commanding 54-45 lead with 16:01 remaining. That's when Richmond took over. The sophomore out-scored UConn by himself, 17-7, over the next 4:13, and his three-pointer with 11:48 left gave the Pirates a 62-61 lead.

The game remained a one-possession contest for the final 12:00 minutes of regulation, which featured four lead changes. UConn had a chance to take the lead in their final possession, but the stout Pirate defense forced a shot clock violation. With 8.3 seconds to go, The Hall went the length of the floor and got a clean three-pointer for Aiken, but the shot rimmed out.

Aiken scored four of the Pirates' first six points in the extra session to give The Hall an 84-80 lead with 2:19 left to play, but Connecticut stormed back with a 7-2 run, and Adama Sanogo's jumper in the post with 45 seconds left gave them their first lead of overtime, 87-86. Richmond struck back, muscling in a go-ahead layup to put The Hall back on top, 88-87, with 31 seconds to go. On UConn's final possession, Rhoden came up with a huge steal and called a timeout from the floor to secure the possession, and victory, for The Hall.

Inside the Numbers:

Seton Hall was 32-for-59 (54.2%) from the floor for the game, while Connecticut was 31-for-66 (47.0%). The Hall was 6-for-15 (40.0%) from three-point range, while the Huskies were 14-for-23 (60.9%).
Connecticut out-rebounded Seton Hall, 40-to-25, including an 18-to-7 edge on the offensive glass and a 23-to-8 advantage in second-chance points.
Seton Hall was 20-for-24 (83.3%) from the free-throw line, while UConn was 11-for-12 (91.7%).
Seton Hall won the turnover battle, forcing 19, compared to 12 for Connecticut. The Hall outscored the Huskies in points-off-turnovers, 26-to-18. The Pirates only had four turnovers in the second half.
The Pirates had a 34-to-25 advantage in bench points.
Richmond finished with a career-high 27 points on 10-for-13 shooting from the floor and 6-for-8 shooting from the free-throw line.
Aiken had 22 points and a team-best seven assists with just two turnovers.
Rhoden finished with 15 points and six rebounds.
Jackson had 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting.
Tyrese Samuel (Quebec, Montreal), playing in his first game since Dec. 12, had seven points, a team-high seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals.
Ike Obiagu (Abuja, Nigeria) had a season-high six blocks.

News & Notes:

Seton Hall improves to 11-3 overall and 2-2 in BIG EAST play, while UConn falls to 10-4 overall and 1-2 in the conference.
The Pirates are now 21-45 all-time against the Huskies.
This was Connecticut's first game since Dec. 21. The Huskies' head coach Dan Hurley played basketball for the Pirates from 1991-96.
Head coach Kevin Willard is now 3-2 vs. Hurley.
Willard now has 260 career victories and 97 BIG EAST wins.
The win marked the Pirates' third Quad 1 win of the season and they are now 3-3 in Q1 contests.
Today's game was the 136^th in Cale's career, which makes him Seton Hall's career leader.
Seton Hall improves to 10-0 this season when shooting 40.0% or better from the field.
Today's game was the first overtime contest with Connecticut since February 27, 1991. It's Seton Hall's first-ever overtime victory against the Huskies.
Aiken reached 20 points in a game for the third time this season and the 26th time of his career.
Obiagu registered his 12th career performance with five or more blocks and he tallied a swat for the 23rd consecutive game.
The Hall improves to 88-9 (.907) during the Kevin Willard era when it scores 80 points or more.
The Pirates are now 71-57 (.555) all-time at the Prudential Center and 38-18 (.679) since 2015-16 against BIG EAST competition in the building.
The Hall is now 105-17 (.861) since 2016-17 when they attempt more free throws than their opponent.
Seton Hall's bench has either tied or outscored its opponent's bench in all 14 games this season.
The last time Seton Hall had two players score at least 20 points in a single game was also against Connecticut. On Feb. 6 last season, Sandro Mamukelashvili scored 22 points and Cale added 20 against the Huskies.

Up Next:
Seton Hall will return to action on Thursday, January 13 when it travels to Chicago for a contest at DePaul. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on FS1 and found on the radio dial on WMCA 570.