Seton Hall University
17-16,10-10Big East
Colorado
18-16,8-12Pac-12
Seton Hall's Season Ends With Narrow Loss At Colorado In NIT
3/15/2023 3:25:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Boulder, Colo. - Despite traveling two time zones away on 24 hours notice and tipping off at 11 p.m. Eastern time, the Seton Hall men's basketball team battled and held a one-point lead with under 30 seconds left at Colorado but the Buffaloes came out on top as the Pirates narrowly fell, 65-64, Tuesday evening at CU Events Center.
Senior Tyrese Samuel (Montreal, Quebec) posted his third consecutive double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds and graduate student KC Ndefo (Elmont, N.Y.) stuffed the stat sheet in his final collegiate game with a game-high 18 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Seton Hall finishes the 2022-23 season with a record of 17-16 overall and 10-10 in BIG EAST games. Head coach Shaheen Holloway ends his first campaign at the helm of his alma mater with the most wins (17), most BIG EAST victories (10) and most road wins (6) by a first-year head coach in program history.
How It Happened
In the first half, Colorado held the Pirates scoreless for nearly nearly minutes and it used a 10-2 run to jump in front, 27-18, with 2:29 left in the first half. Free throws helped keep Seton Hall in the game though as it went 9-of-10 from the stripe in the first 20 minutes. The Pirates outscored the Buffaloes 7-4 over the final 1:20 including four points at the line that helped cut the deficit to six, 33-27, at the break.
Seton Hall returned to its identity and clamped down on the defensive end at the start of the second half. After a Colorado layup at the 16:28 mark that maintained its six-point halftime lead, 40-34, the Pirates held the Buffaloes scoreless for nearly five minutes, helping reverse the score in The Hall's favor. In all it was a 12-2 run for the Pirates, featuring four points from Ndefo and Samuel, giving them a five-point lead, 47-42 with 11:51 to play. However, Colorado hit a three on the next possession and nailed another triple with under 10 minutes to go that trimmed the Seton Hall lead to one, 49-48.
The Buffaloes would eventually pull ahead and take a six-point lead, 61-55, with 4:03 left and it forced Seton Hall to call a timeout. Out of the timeout, Ndefo converted a layup and two minutes later graduate student Jamir Harris (North Brunswick, N.J.) came up with a steal and found senior Al-Amir Dawes (Newark, N.J.) on the fast break as his layup trimmed the deficit to two, 61-59.
With the Pirates trailing by four with 2:04 to go, Colorado sat in a 2-3 zone and Ndefo found Samuel behind the zone for the dunk that cut the deficit to two again. After getting a stop on the defensive end, senior Femi Odukale (Brooklyn, N.Y.) corralled the rebound, pushed the ball up the floor to Harris who found a streaking Ndefo who slammed it home to tie the score and drew the foul in the process. Ndefo converted the free throw to give the Pirates a a 64-63 lead with 32 seconds left but Colorado was able to answer with a go-ahead bucket with 20 seconds to go, 65-64, and Seton Hall was unable to answer.
Inside The Numbers
- Seton Hall shot 36.7 percent from the floor but held Colorado to 38.9 percent shooting.
- The Buffaloes did damage from deep, shooting 55.6 percent (10-of-18).
- The Pirates had their best free throw shooting game with a minimum of 15 attempts, shooting at an 88.9 percent clip from the stripe (16-of-18).
- Seton Hall finished minus-three on the glass (39-36) but finished plus-one on the offensive boards (9-8).
- The Pirates finished with a solid assist-turnover ratio (12-to-6) and forced 10 Colorado turnovers but only scored seven points off of those miscues.
News & Notes
- Ndefo finishes his college career with some gaudy stats; 1,458 career points, 843 rebounds, 372 blocks, 225 assists and 178 steals.
- Samuel set career highs this season with 11.0 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game, 37 blocks and 26 steals.
- Samuel is just the third Pirate since 1992-93 to shoot 55 percent on at least 250 field goal attempts along with Eugene Teague and Adrian Griffin.
- Dawes is the first Seton Hall newcomer to lead the Pirates in scoring since Eugene Harvey in 2006-07.
- Seton Hall has been invited to national postseason tournaments in six of the last seven postseasons.
- Holloway was the first Seton Hall coach to lead the Pirates to a postseason tournament in his first season since Tommy Amaker in 1997-98.
