Thirty-five years and two days after routing UNLV in a 23-point victory in the Elite 8 on their way to within one point of the NCAA Championship, Seton Hall did its best to recreate that history, this time inthe National Invitational Tournament quarterfinals.
Seton Hall (23-12) ran the Runnin’ Rebels (21-13) off the court on way to a 23-point victory, 91-68, in front of a sold-out crowd at Walsh Gymnasium on Wednesday evening.
“I’m just in the moment right now. I’m happy for these guys, happy they were able to play in front of a good home crowd,” Head Coach Shaheen Holloway said in the post-game press conference.
The Hall advanced to the NIT semifinals with the win, which marks the program’s first trip to the tournament’s final four teams since winning the championship in 1953 when it defeated Manhattan 76-58 in the semis before downing St. John’s 58-46 in the title game.
This year’s NIT quarterfinals was all Seton Hall all the way as the Pirates led for the entirety of the game, led in all but one major statistical category and had all five starters score in double figures, while getting bench contributions despite the sixth and seventh players in the rotation missing the game.
“It was tough the last couple days ... we couldn’t do some things, it was a tricky weekend. But I thought for the most part, these guys came in and understood the game plan. That’s what happens when you have good senior leadership,” Holloway said.
The Pirates jumped out to an 11-2 lead less than four minutes into the game with four of the five senior starters scoring. UNLV would cut the score to within six points, 24-18, with less than eight minutes remaining in the half, but Seton Hall went on a 20-9 run to end the half, including a 7-0 tear over the final two minutes jumpstarted by a three-pointer from senior guard Kadary Richmond and slammed shut by senior guard Dylan Addae-Wusu’s steal and emphatic runaway dunk with just one tick remaining on the clock for the 44-26 advantage.
Graduate guard Al-Amir Dawes connected on three shots from long range in the first two minutes of the second half with the last shot being a deep heat check to blow the roof off of Walsh Gymnasium andforce a UNLV timeout as Seton Hall took a 53-26 lead, its largest of the game as the Pirates cruised to victory.
Seton Hall was led by Richmond’s efficient double-double of 16 points on 7/9 shooting from the field and 2/2 from long distance and 10 assists to go along with four rebounds, five steals and one block.Richmond’s final numbers did not look a whole lot different than they did at the half – 13 points, six assists, four boards and three steals – and they didn’t have to as he single handedly pushed the Pirates ahead by scoring or assisting on 21 straight points from 19-14 with less than 10 minutes remaining to 40-26 with just over a minute and a half remaining in the half.
Dawes was the game’s leading scorer with 21 points on 4/7 shooting from three alongside six rebounds and three assists, while senior forward Dre Davis recorded 14 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block.
Addae-Wusu put up 12 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals with graduate center Jaden Bediako finishing with 11 points, four rebounds and four blocks.
Seton Hall shot 35/62 (56.5%) from the field and 11/25 (44%) from three, while dishing out 22 assists. The Pirates recorded nine steals, six blocks and 13 turnovers, which they converted into 17 points.
Seton Hall returns to action against Georgia in the NIT semifinals at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Tuesday, April 2.
Thoughts:
Quite simply, BE>MW
Buddy texted me from Bunny’s before the game about the crowd/atmosphere, so I knew Walsh was going to be rocking, but the 16-0 run between halves for a 27 point lead put the place into an absolute fervor and you could tell on television. It was hard to hear the announcers throughout due to the fans.
When the score was 24-18 and we had assisted on nine of our 11 field goals, I said to myself that the game was way too close given how the team was playing, but it was great to see Kadary and the older guys take over from there.
I don’t know if I can’t say it enough about Richmond scoring or assisting on 21 straight points because of the way he did it - effortlessly like he was schooling a bunch of kids on the blacktop. My favorite highlight from him was getting the block on the defensive end, trailing on the break and getting the ball back before driving and dishing to Davis for an easy layup.
Thought it was kind of ironic that we took a 30-20 advantage on a shot at the rim thanks to great team basketball, where we were unselfish and shared the ball after Dawes made a bad first pass to Tubek in transition, which took away an initial fastbreak layup opportunity.
Loved hearing the one more year chants for Richmond and Davis from the crowd, that’s what it's all about and hopefully one or both entertains us with that notion.
After tonight, you have to think this team would have made at least some noise in the Big Dance had they had the opportunity – just seems like Sha would’ve forced it out of them regardless.
Overall this might have been the most complete game the team played as a whole all year, everyone that played scored except for walk-on David Gabriel, who came on in the final minute or so.
