Game Preview: Red-hot Pirates travel Midwest to take on Xavier (1/2/19)

Date: January 1, 2019

By Andrea Keppler

Seton Hall kicked off their non-conference slate with a bang on Saturday night with an exhilarating come-from-behind win secured by a buzzer-beating three pointer from Shavar Reynolds with .4 seconds remaining against St. John’s. The Hall will now head to Cincinnati to face Xavier (9-5) in a showdown at the Cintas Center on Wednesday, Jan. 2.

On Saturday, the Hall had four players reach double digits while Sandro Mamukelashvili had eight rebounds and a career-high four assists. The team’s three-point shooting improved in the second half increasing from 20 to 25 percent from behind the arc.

Myles Powell notched 15 points to lead the Pirates, and Michael Nzei’s 10 boards were the most by any player on both Seton Hall and St. John’s squads.

However, one of Seton Hall’s biggest accomplishments on Saturday night was holding down offensive powerhouse Shamorie Ponds to eight points. Perimeter defense will be key to a limiting the scoring of the Xavier Musketeers who shoot 37.8 percent in games that they win.

Xavier’s leading scorer Quentin Goodin is averaging 13.7 points per game and has been a familiar name on the Big East honor roll this season ranking second in the conference with 5.7 assists per game.  

Naji Marshall is following right behind Goodin in points with 13.0 per game. Marshall was a major factor in the Musketeer’s 74-64 win over DePaul as his double-double consisted of 19 points and a career-high 14 rebounds.

The Musketeers are shooting 48.5 percent from the floor and 34.1 percent from downtown compared to Seton Hall’s 45.1 percent and 32.4 percent, respectively.

Even though Powell has been the main scorer for the Hall with his 22.5 points per game, the next highest scorer is Nzei who averages less than half of Powell’s total with 10.2 points per game. Mamukelashvili is the only other Pirate averaging double digits with 10.0 points.

Last season Xavier won both matches against the Hall, and if the Pirates want to snap their losing streak with the Musketeers, they have to find more contributors other than Powell like they did on Saturday against St. John’s.

Catch all of the action starting at 6:15 p.m. tomorrow on 89.5 FM WSOU where Wilnir Louis and Frank Frasco will have all of the pregame coverage followed by a 6:30 p.m. tipoff, when Chris Russo and Dalton Allison will be broadcasting live from the Cintas Center.

 Andrea Keppler can be reached at andrea.keppler@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @keppler_andrea.

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