The cortisol levels of everyone inside Prudential Center should be studied each time Seton Hall men’s basketball pulls off one of their signature second-half comebacks, but especially that of head coach Shaheen Holloway.
“It's not good for my health, I’ll be honest with you,” Holloway said, half-kidding, half-serious. “It’s draining. It is, it's really draining.”
After trailing 41-33 at halftime, the Pirates (16-6, 6-5 BIG EAST) pulled off yet another one of those comebacks, this time over the Marquette Golden Eagles (8-15, 3-9 BIG EAST) at the Prudential Center on Saturday afternoon.
With just 1:18 left in the contest, the Pirates took a 67-64 lead after junior guard Adam “Budd” Clark found senior forward Josh Rivera out of a double-team at mid-court, who then found the open man in graduate guard Staton-McCray for a three-point shot that proved to be the dagger.
“Just knock it down–that’s it,” Staton-McCray said was going through his head at that moment. “All the shots, all the work we put in, that’s how you have the confidence to knock it down.”
Staton-McCray finished the game with 11 points, two rebounds and one assist, while shooting 50.9% (4-for-9) from the field and 75% (3-for-4) from deep. His three makes from beyond the arc, including the dagger, also accounted for 75% of SHU’s total three-pointers made in the game (4-for-10).
“As soon as [Rivera] passed it, I knew it was going in,” Clark added. “It was a great pass.”
Clark followed his 24-point, six-rebound, four-steal and four-assist game on Wednesday’s 86-68 win over Xavier with game-highs of six assists and 19 points, in addition to four rebounds and two steals, this time out. Scoring 15 points and dishing four assists in the second half alone, the junior guard engineer SHU’s sixth comeback win in conference play.
After a fan fell at mid-court and spilled their drink, briefly interrupting the start of the second half, SHU went on a 8-3 run through its first six minutes. At 15:17, Clark found senior forward Stephon Payne with a go-ahead bounce pass on the break for a two-handed slam that brought the game within just one point, Marquette still leading 44-43. The next time down after the Pirates got a stop on defense, the junior guard scored a reverse layup to cap off a 8-0 run that gave SHU a 45-44 lead, their first of the game, at 14:42.
“I just wanted to find a way to win, whatever it takes: me getting an assist, me getting steals, me scoring,” Clark said about his second half performance. “Tonight, I did a little bit of both, I scored, I dished it out a little bit, and I just brought energy to the game, energy to my team and tried to lead them to a victory.”
From there, SHU gained as much as a five-point lead, before Marquette tied the game at 64 with just 1:46 left. In the time remaining, the Pirates went on a 5-0 run, with Staton-McCray hitting the dagger and Clark then icing the game from the line to earn the 69-64 win.
“We’re just trying to do whatever to win,” Clark said. “It doesn’t matter how it comes, whether we’re trailing or have to comeback, whether we’re winning, holding the lead, we’re just trying to find ways to win.”
Long before Clark’s second-half heroics, however, SHU found themselves trailing at halftime for the third-straight game in a row. In the first half, Marquette posted ridiculous shooting splits of 54% (15-for-28) from the field and 8-for-12 (75%) from beyond the arc, while also outscoring SHU 17-to-9 in second-chance points.
“They haven’t been shooting the ball great, they’ve been getting in the paint,” Holloway said about Marquette. “So the game plan was to close the lanes up. We close the lane up, and they start making threes.”
Naturally, this led to halftime adjustments from the Pirates’ fourth-year head coach.
“So second half, we kind of just played the way we play, kind of take away the three,” Holloway said. “I know they made a couple late, but making eight in the first half, that was the difference in the game right there.”
Holloway also noted that another difference between the halves was the tempo SHU played at, with him mentioning how he has been on Clark to push the pace rather than play methodically and waste precious seconds in the shot clock.
“You know, I keep telling [Clark], we can’t walk the ball up the court: when we walk the ball, we’re not a good offensive team,” Holloway said. “When we push the ball up the court, we’re gonna get something in transition, something for him, or something for everybody else. He puts a lot of pressure on gaurds…when you push the ball like that, you put a lot of pressure on the defense.”
“I thought that was the difference in the second half,” Holloway said. “The first half, we walked the ball up the court, second half, we got the ball out. The first half, they got the ball out, second half, we slowed them down, and I thought that was the difference in the game.”
Each game feels like a must-win going forward if SHU wants to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament come March. Now 16-6 overall and 6-5 in conference play, the games remaining in the Pirates schedule feature some tough games on the road, and some “should wins” at home—which Holloway dismissed as being non-existent in the BIG EAST.
“I know people think there's games you should win—there’s no games you ‘should’ win in this league,” Holloway said. “Everybody’s good, everybody’s well-coached.”
In the Pirates 2-0 homestand this week, Holloway saw a number of things that he hopes will only help the team next week and onward.
“Seeing the ball going through the basket, winning—winning is contagious,” Holloway said. “Different guys stepping up, seeing different lineups. Just a bunch of things that I could do as a coach that I see that I could work with.”
“It’s just good to get wins, and get confidence,” Holloway added. “Obviously, the road trip we got coming up is tough but the main thing is getting these guys a day off tomorrow....Guys are playing way too many minutes....So getting them a day off, then coming back Monday, and then giving me a couple days to get ready for a really good Villanova team.”
As Holloway said, the Pirates will embark on an important two-game road trip next week, first visiting the Villanova Wildcats (16-5, 7-3 BIG EAST) on Feb. 4, followed by the Creighton Bluejays (12-9, 6-4 BIG EAST) on Feb. 7. With both being a Quad 1 result, a win over either would be huge for The Hall’s NCAA Tournament resume.
Zachary Mawby is the head editor of The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at zachary.mawby@student.shu.edu.
