Welp, at least Seton Hall men’s basketball can rest assured that they put up more of a fight at No. 6 UConn than No. 15 St. John’s…
On the last day of February, SHU had a real chance to punch their ticket to March Madness by earning one of the best victories by anyone in college basketball this season—until they completely blew it.
After they took an eight-point, 56-48, lead with just 8:45 left inside Gampel Pavilion on Saturday afternoon, what ensued was a 23-11 scoring response by the Huskies (27-3, 17-2 BIG EAST) in the time remaining that first lost the Pirates (19-9, 9-9 BIG EAST) that lead, then eventually the game, SHU falling 71-67.
Having blown such a lead, but still in a back-and-forth battle with UConn down the stretch, SHU gained a one-point, 65-64, advantage with just 1:22 left after graduate guard AJ Staton-McCray drove to the cup with three Huskies in front of him, drawing contact to earn a trip to the free throw line.
Making both, the second free throw gave Staton-McCray a team-high 20 points on impressive shooting splits of 46% from the field, 50% (with a season-high four made 3-pointers) and a perfect 100% from the line. He was one of three Pirates in double-figures, junior forward Elijah Fisher scoring 12 points, and freshman forward Najai Hines with an 11-point and rebound double-double (his second-straight).
That 65-64 lead would stand as SHU’s last of the game, however, as what followed cost them the season-defining win. On UConn’s ensuing possession, the Pirates forced the Huskies nearly into a shot-clock violation with suffocating defense, before the referees bailed out UConn’s Solo Ball with a questionable foul call on junior guard Adam “Budd” Clark with just 53.7 left, the Huskies taking a 66-65 lead.
Rather than feed the hot hand in Staton-McCray, Clark took charge of the Pirates’ offensive response on the next possession. The result, however, was an off-balance shot at the right block that missed everything, with UConn collecting the defensive rebound and hitting a pair of free throws to extend their lead to three with just 18.3 seconds left.
It was Clark and the referees at the center of things once again seconds later with a missed call that put SHU into yet another awkward position. Up by three with 18.3 seconds left, UConn Head Coach Dan Hurley decided to foul to prevent a game-tying 3 from SHU. The referees successively called Huskies guard Silas Demary Jr. intentional foul of Clark at mid-court the first time, but not the second, despite Demary Jr. putting both hands on Clark with the obvious intent to foul.
Clark, anticipating the foul, put up a three in an effort to get three shots at the line instead of two—but nothing was called, and the Huskies were the ones who shot free throws on the other end instead (part of the 21-2 free free throw disparity in favor of UConn in the second half).
That was the nail in the coffin for what was a rough day in the office for Clark, who finished the game with more turnovers than points, 5 and 4, respectively.
While SHU Head Coach Shaheen Holloway, wearing a mask having spent The Hall's bye week with the flu, didn’t have much to say in the postgame press conference, Hurley went at great length to praise Holloway and his alma mater.
“I’m just blown away by the quality of what Seton Hall just brought to this arena today,” Hurley said. “Obviously, if you watch that game, that’s a team that is NCAA caliber, and if they close out the season with two wins, win a couple of games in the BIG EAST Tournament, I think that’s a team that very well has a chance to make the tournament.”
Hurley was also blown away by SHU’s 3-point shooting performance (as was everyone else watching the game). Against the Huskies, the Pirates shot 9-for-18 (50%) from beyond the arc (their second-most made threes in a game this season) after having gone 0-for-18 in their game prior.
“Obviously, the way they shot the ball was a little bit surprising—they haven’t been shooting it that great,” Hurley said. “But they were so determined and so tough and just so hard to play against.”
It was a corner three-pointer from Staton-McCray that opened the second half scoring for SHU after the Pirates ended a back-and-fourth first half of 11 lead changes and six times tied with a 1-point, 33-32, lead—just the Pirates’ fifth halftime lead in 18 games of conference play this season, and just the fifth time UConn has trailed at hlaftime this season.
SHU gained such a lead right before the break with their final possession, when Hines grabbed an offensive rebound, maneuvered around Reed Jr. in the paint and scored a righty layup with just two seconds left, the Pirates leading the Huskies, 33-32, after one of their best first halves of basketball this season.
The freshman forward led the Pirates with seven first-half points on a perfect 2-for-2 from the field and 3-for-4 (75%) from the line.
Minutes prior, UConn’s Demary Jr. found teammate Reed Jr. on a roll to the rim with an open lane ahead of him before SHU’s Mike Williams came across the lane to challenge the shot, getting a piece of it.
Williams, however, went down in pain, pounding his fist on the hardwood after what looked like a serious arm/upper-body injury—a huge blow to SHU considering they were without sophomore Trey Parker in this one, who missed the entire week of practice with some kind of injury, with Williams serving as the Pirates’ backup point guard behind fellow junior Clark.
Luckily, William’s arm/upper-body injury was only a scare, and he would return to the game, finishing it with nine points on 3-of-5 (60%) shooting from the field and a perfect 3-for-3 from deep.
Inside three minutes of play, SHU found themselves in familiar, although unwanted, territory when they picked up four team fouls. This included a foul on UConn’s very first possession of the game by AJ Staton-McCray, before senior forward Stephon Payne picked up two of his own in a span of under 10 seconds a few possessions later.
The Pirates will stay on the road to play their final away game of the regular season when they travel to Cincinnati to face Xavier (14-15, 6-12 BIG EAST) on March 3—a potential Quad 2 win that wouldn’t hurt SHU’s NCAA Tournament resume with only one more chance at a signature win.
Zachary Mawby is the head editor of The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at zachary.mawby@student.shu.edu.
