Pirates sustain their dominance throughout 69-55 victory of Marquette

Date: January 12, 2020

By: Angelique McKenzie

The Seton Hall men’s basketball team beat Marquette 69-55 this Saturday, Jan. 11, in order to extend their win streak to six games. They now have an overall record of 12-4 and a conference record of 4-0.

This is the second time Seton Hall has started conference play 4-0 since joining the Big East in 1979, the other time being the ’92-’93 team that won both the conference regular season and tournament titles. In addition to that, this win puts the team in first in the Big East as Butler while undefeated in conference play has only played three games to the Hall’s four.

Despite getting on the score sheet first, the Pirates got off to a slow start in the first half. Despite taking a lot of high percentage shots, they could not seem to find the back of the basket. This resulted in them being down by 11 points with nearly 10 minutes remaining in the half. It was then that the team started to play what head coach Willard calls “hardnosed defense” as they held the Golden Eagles to six points over the next five minutes. This along with a 13-5 run, allowed Seton Hall to go into the half up 40-37.

The second half was a much smoother ride for the team. Even though Marquette managed to tie the game at 45 apiece, the Pirates had some reserves waiting in the wings ready to help get the game back under control. Shavar Reynolds, Tyrese Samuel, Anthony Nelson and Ike Obiagu provided the much-needed defensive spark that helped the Hall to the win. They went on an 11-0 run that included a Reynolds three and a Nelson to Obiagu alley-oop to force a Marquette timeout. Despite their best attempt to get back into the game, the Pirates held Marquette to 0 for 8 shooting in the final six minutes of the game.

Myles Powell led the team in scoring with 23 points, seven rebounds and three steals. Quincy McKnight was another big contributor despite only scoring four points on two of eight shooting, he led the team in assists with six and four rebounds and a steal to his stat line. Starting center Romaro Gill contributed 10 points including four from the charity stripe.

This was truly a defensive win though with Willard saying after the game that; “These guys know who they are, we still are a team that needs to defend. We’re not build to outscore people.”

Willard was also proud of the work that Reynolds put in on defense saying that; “I could put him out there on everyone.”

The men’s basketball team will be back in action on Wednesday, Jan. 15, when they travel to Indianapolis to take on the sixth ranked Butler Bulldogs.

Angelique McKenzie can be reached at angelique.mckenzie@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, WSOU, Men's Basketball