Game Preview: Pirates host tough St. Louis squad (11/17/18)

Date: November 16, 2018

By Wilnir Louis

The Rock will be rocking as the Seton Hall men’s basketball team (1-1 overall) will be playing their first game of the season in the Prudential Center when they face the Saint Louis Billikens (3-0 overall).

The Pirates are coming off a tough road game against Nebraska, a matchup they lost 80-57. There were many positives from that game that the Pirates can take into this next matchup against Saint Louis. For one, they were battling with a great Nebraska team for a majority of the game. At the half, the Hall was only down 33-27 and they held the Cornhuskers to a 27.8 field goal percentage. Overall, Myles Powell scored well, putting up 24 points and going 9-9 from the free throw line, while Michael Nzei is emerging as a reliable scorer as he got double digits in back to back regular season games.

As for things that the Pirates will need to correct, overall the team shot poorly, going 21-59 on the night. They were even worse behind the arch only making two threes off 16 attempts. Defensively, they were nonexistent with only one steal and three blocks on the night while the team had 20 total fouls. Quincy McKnight fouled out of the game.

Meanwhile, the Pirates’ opponent will be riding high coming to Newark, NJ. Saint Louis comes in at 3-0 overall after, most recently, beating North Alabama 69-58. Saint Louis, the preseason Atlantic-10 favorite, saw four of their players with double digits in the game against North Alabama. Their team leader in points was Javon Bess, who had 16 points on 5-10 shooting while having 10 rebounds. Behind him was D.J. Foreman who had 15 points on 5-6 shooting and five assists. On the season, Bess and Tramaine Isabell Jr. have been anchoring this team, as they both average 15 points per game. While the Billikens have been playing well, this will be their first road test of the year, and they will be entering a hostile Prudential Center.

This game will be broadcasted on 89.5 FM WSOU, and can also be found on iHeartRadio. Tip off will be at 8:00 P.M., with Keith Egan and Erin Kelly on the call.

Wilnir Louis can be reached at wilnir.louis@student.shu.edu.

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