Seton Hall
Powell propels offense with 25, Pirates defeat Musketeers 80-70
Date: January 2, 2019By Andrea Keppler
Seton Hall kicked off the non-conference season with a come-from-behind win on Saturday over St. John’s and followed suit on Wednesday night with their 80-70 victory over the Xavier Musketeers at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati.
The Pirates were trailing by four points after the first half, but dug themselves into a 10 point deficit in the second half with 12:16 left on the clock. Zach Hankins tallied 18 points in the first 20 minutes of the game while teammate Paul Scruggs added ten of his own.
However, the Hall was able to pick up the offense as a slam dunk by Romaro Gill ignited their run in the remaining minutes of the game.
After a steal by Gill with 10:29 on the clock, Myles Powell added to the Pirates’ score on the fast break opportunity and drew a foul on his layup and then connected from the charity stripe.
The Hall went on an offensive slaughter of Xavier as Sandro Mamukelashvili’s dunk with 9:58 remaining was followed by one of Gill’s three blocks in the second half as he swatted away a layup by Scruggs. Mamukelashvili then stacked on two points for the Pirates and cut the Hall’s deficit to one point with a layup.
Myles Cale joined the action in the second half scoring five points in less than a minute starting with his three-pointer with 7:07 remaining, followed by an and-one on his layup.
Gill’s offensive rebound off of Shavar Reynolds’s miss three-pointer lead to a slam dunk to give the Pirates a two-point lead at 65-63.
The Musketeers retaliated throughout the half as Scruggs’ jumper and three-pointer with 3:44 left tied up the score at 68 apiece. However, the Hall closed out the half as Powell knocked down his shot behind the arc, and Mamukelashvili connected with a slam dunk on the fast break.
Powell was the leading scorer, rebounder and tallied the most assists for the Hall with his 25 points, six boards and eight assists. Mamukelashvili was the second highest scorer with 11 points.
The Pirates shot 35% from downtown compared to the Musketeers’ 27%. The Hall also edged Xavier with 44 to 38 points in the paint. Even though Scruggs and Hankins scored 22 and 20 points, respectively, it was not enough to combat a stronger defensive Pirates team in the second half.
Seton Hall continues their road trip with their next game at DePaul on Sunday, Jan. 6 at 1 p.m. Pregame coverage will start on 89.5 FM WSOU at 12:45 p.m., and can be heard online at wsou.net and on iHeartRadio.
Andrea Keppler can be reached at andrea.keppler@student.edu and on Twitter at @keppler_andrea.
