It was the story of a surprisingly strong season for Seton Hall. The match started off shaky, but gained momentum as the match progressed.
Trailing by 19 points early on, the Pirates didn’t let a poor first half spoil their trip to UBS Arena.
Instead, they strengthened their NCAA Tournament hopes by defeating a weakened St. John’s 68-62 on Sunday night for their fifth Quad 1 win.
Seton Hall, picked ninth in the Big East, tied with Creighton for third place.
Most impressively, the Pirates bounced back from last Sunday’s blowout loss to Villanova to defeat Xavier and advance past St. John’s.
“We’re just fighting,” Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway said. “Like I said to everyone the other day, the team that played against Villanova, I don’t know that team. We showed that heart tonight, and it was nice to see that.”
The win epitomized Seton Hall (17-9, 10-5) this season.
The big three of Kadary Richmond, Al-Amir Dawes, and Dre Davis combined for 52 points, even though Davis played through an injured right ankle.
Davis hasn’t practiced since injuring his ankle on Wednesday, but still finished with 15 points and seven rebounds.
Jaden Bediako (8 points, 9 rebounds) was the best center on the floor in the second half.
And the Pirates were the tougher team when it mattered, shaking off a poor shooting night by forcing their way into the paint and getting to the free-throw line 37 times.
In the final 21 minutes and 36 seconds, they outscored St. John’s by a whopping 38 points.
Seton Hall cut the deficit from 19 points to 12 points and the game started to pick up late in the first half.
The momentum carried over past halftime.
St. John’s missed 11 of its first 12 shots, while its local rival was closing in on the lead.
Richmond in particular was outstanding after halftime, recording 14 points and 9 rebounds.
Dawes’ 3-pointer with 2:30 left extended the lead to four points, and Richmond added a 3-point play.
“They were the epitome of toughness in the second half,” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said.
After that, Seton Hall did not want to talk about the NCAA Tournament bubble, preferring to focus on the remaining five games.
Obviously, a lot can still happen between now and Choice Sunday, March 17th.
But if it’s just handling domestic work with DePaul, Butler, and Villanova, Hall looks like he’ll be back in the dance.
“We’re heading in a good direction,” Dawes said.
