Seton Hall
Pirates Drop Fourth Straight in Road Loss to No. 4 Xavier
Date: February 15, 2018
(Photo: SHU Athletics)
(Cincinnati, Ohio)- A slow start to the game plagued the Seton Hall Pirates as Trevon Blueitt's 37 points pushed Xavier to a 102-90 victory.
Kevin Willard's squad has been synonymous this season with coming out of the gates slowly, and against Xavier it hurt them. The hot hand of Blueitt showed early as he started out 3-for-4 from the field, and the Musketeers led the Pirates 12-6 early in the first half.
Defensively, the impact of Angel Delgado's knee injury showed, as the Pirates were unable to slow a sharp-shooting Musketeer squad. The Pirates were not able to competently defend shots, and that led to an eruption in the Cintas Center.
At the 12 minute mark of the first half, Blueitt had already amassed 12 points, and at that point the Musketeers led 22-11. All you had to do was check the field goal percentages at the time to know the story of the game. At that point, Xavier was shooting 67 percent compared to an abysmal 27 percent for the Pirates.
Trailing by 17, Willard decided to shake the rotation up and give freshman Sandro Mamukaleshveli more minutes than usual. The Georgian usually averages about two minutes a game, received eight in the first half alone. He made a terrific impact on the game, but the first half belonged to the dominant Musketeers, who led 45-25 at the half way point. At the half, Xavier had made more three point field shots (9) than the Pirates had made field goals (8).
With the lead seeming insurmountable to Seton Hall, they came out in the second half with purpose. Myles Powell started the game shooting 2-for-7, but turned his game around and shot 8-for-13 in the second half. Powell finished with a career high 30 points. The team started to build momentum, and a Sandro free throw cut the lead to 10 with 10:43 left in the second half.
Had Seton Hall played better in the first half, they would not have had to battle back the way that they did the second half. Willard opted to play Sandro more than Delgado in the second half, and it paid dividends. In his 13 second half minutes, Sandro put up 15 points, a block, and an assist to Powell that helped bring the game to 87-81 with 3:41 remaining.
Another freshman, Jordan Walker, received crucial minutes down the stretch. There was a certain energy brought on by the younger players this evening, and the game was more competitive when they were in it. His five assists all came in the second half, in 13 minutes played. Willard sung the praises of the two freshmen.
"We really needed someone to come in and change the tide of the game, and he (Walker) did exactly that," Coach Willard said.
Though the deficit was cut down to just six late in the game, the Pirates were unable to come up a stop when they needed it the most. A dagger three by J.P. Macura iced the game and put the Pirates down 94-84 with 1:40 left on the clock. The Pirates put up a massive fight, and even outscored Xavier 65-57 in the second half, but they fell 102-90.
Senior Desi Rodriguez finished with a quiet 20 points on 50 percent shooting, and he led all seniors in minutes with 34. The loss tonight extended the losing streak of the Pirates to four games, and dropped their conference record to 6-7. The Pirates will look to snap that streak on Sunday when they will host DePaul at 1 pm.
Dalton Allison can be reached at dalton.allison@student.shu.edu.
