Seton Hall
Late Powell dagger helps push Pirates past Creighton, 81-75
Date: February 17, 2019By Andrea Keppler
The Seton Hall men’s basketball team shut down Creighton in the final minutes of the game, and went on a 14-2 run in the last 4:33 to secure an 81-75 win over the Bluejays on Sunday afternoon in Omaha, Nebraska.
After the first half, Seton Hall was down 33-30 after Mitch Ballock drained a three in a buzzer-beating shot to end the first 20 minutes in style. The Pirates were not seeing any production from their season’s leading scorer Myles Powell as he had only three points to his name. Myles Cale was the lone Pirate in double figures with 13 points, and the Pirates let up a 10 point lead and allowed the Blue Jays to go on a 9-0 run in two minutes.
Quincy McKnight was the pivotal player for the Hall in the second half and contributed to the defensive efforts that helped to propel the Pirates to victory. McKnight converted in the paint on the fast break with 13:24 left in the game after a turnover on Davion Mintz.
Within less than two minutes McKnight had three steals starting with 2:42 left on the clock and was able to limit the offensive efforts by the Bluejays.
Powell said that “[McKnight] has to be in the race for Big East Defensive Player of the Year” following his performance.
The Bluejays are one of the top teams in college basketball from hitting behind the arc and entered the game as fifth in the nation in 3-point percentage (40.5) and 3-pointers made per game (11.0). They shot better from long range (46.7 percent) than from the field (43.3 percent).
However, Powell showed up the Bluejays from long range and converted on a shot with 48 seconds left to tie the game at 73 points apiece to ignite the offense which ended in a Pirates win.
For a second game in a row, the Hall had four players reach double-figures as Sandro Mamukelashvili, Cale, Powell, McKnight had 17, 20, 19 and 16 points respectively, and Powell noted that the distribution among his teammates “takes that pressure off me.”
The Pirates led in points in the paint with 34 compared to the Blue Jays’ 28 and also edged Creighton in fast break points with 10. Both teams finished with 35 rebounds on the game.
After posting a double-double in last weekend’s Pirates-Blue Jays showdown at the Rock, Seton Hall was able to contain Martin Krampelj to 11 points and 5 boards. Creighton, too, had four players in double figures but could not hold off the defensive efforts of the Pirates in the last 20 minutes,
Seton Hall has won four of their last five games and will next face Xavier Wednesday, Feb. 20 at the Prudential Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. and coverage will begin at 6:45 p.m. on 89.5 FM WSOU, WSOU.net and WSOU on iHeartRadio.
Andrea Keppler can be reached at andrea.keppler@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @keppler_andrea.
