Jeremy Hazell led five Pirates in double-figures as Seton Hall routed Long Island University 95-66 Saturday night at the Prudential Center.
The win moved the Hall to 4-0 on the young season and kicked off the first of what will be nine consecutive games at the Rock.
Hazell dropped in 21 points in what was his third straight game scoring 20 or more points. Robert Mitchell joined him with 20 points of his own to go along with eight rebounds, Jordan Theodore chipped 11 points and Herb Pope tallied yet another double-double for the Hall with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Michael Culpo paced the Blackbirds scoring 13 points off the bench on 3-6 shooting from beyond the arc.
Eugene Harvey rounded out the double-figure scoring for Seton Hall with undoubtedly his best performance of the season filling the stat sheet with 18 points, seven steals, and eights assists while turning the ball over just one time. This is a marked improvement from the last game at Cornell in which he failed to score a point and recorded only two assist in just 16 minutes of play.
With a 28-22 lead, Harvey found a cutting Hazell for an electrifying alley-oop finish that would begin a 16-5 run to close out the half and put the Pirates out of reach for good. In the second half the team picked up where they left off leading at times by as many as 40 points before closing the game 95-66.
The Pirates defense led the way as they forced 21 Blackbird turnovers and held leading scorer Jaytornah Wisseh to just ten points, 13.5 off of his season average.
Despite career rebound number five-hundred for John Garcia the Pirates were beaten on the glass 43-42.
A consistent area of criticism for the team, it will be magnified even more as back-up center Melvyn Oliver has taken a "temporary leave of absence" from the team to focus on academics according to Coach Bobby Gonzalez in a press release issued prior to the game.
The Pirates were also once again without the services of guard Keon Lawrence, whose return remains uncertain.
Regardless, the Pirates will continue to play without them as they get set to take on the NJIT Highlanders Monday night. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
Zack Cziryak can be reached at zachary.cziryak@student.shu.edu.
