Seton Hall falls to Georgetown to close out the regular season

 Bobby Bevilacqua

Looking to make a statement win to end the regular season, the Seton Hall Pirates fell to the Georgetown Hoyas by a final score of 73-67. 

With the Hoyas’ win, and Butler defeating Providence as well today, Georgetown clinched the second seed in the Big East Tournament, only behind the Villanova Wildcats.

Seton Hall closed out their season with a 16-14 record, and a 6-12 record in conference play. The Pirates are 1-8 in their last nine games, and finished the year losing 11 of 14.

It was senior night for Georgetown, and Hoyas Head Coach John Thompson III previously said that he didn’t believe in the tradition of starting all the seniors, as they had all previously started at some point this season. But he made an exception for the 6-foot-9 center Tyler Adams, who had been sidelined for almost his entire career with a heart ailment. 

Georgetown won the tip, and Adams opened the scoring with an uncontested slam dunk in his first career start, a truly special moment for him and a great sportsmanship from both teams.

Seton Hall was plagued by their sloppy play early on, committing 11 turnovers in the first 20 minutes alone, and the Hoyas able to get 8 steals. Not being able to get off to strong starts has been a problem for the Hall for a while, and that continued, trailing the Hoyas 23-14 with 7:55 remaining in the half.

Another one of Seton Hall’s issues in this half was free throws. The Pirates were unable to capitalize from the charity stripe, going just 1-for-8. Sterling Gibbs was just 1-for-6 on free throws.

Size in Seton Hall’s lineup has been a discussion all season long, but they did not let that affect them in the first half. Rebounds were even at 17, but the Hoyas had the edge in offensive boards, snatching six, with Joshua Smith grabbing four of them.

One positive takeaway for the Pirates was that they attacked the paint, getting 16 of their points from Angel Delgado and Brandon Mobley. Delgado had nine rebounds and two helpers along with his six points, and Brandon Mobley added 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting, mixing in some mid-range jumpers. These two helped Seton Hall hand around, trailing Georgetown 32-24 going into the half.

The Hoyas started out the second half with a 9-0 run, but the Pirates came back with a 10-2 run of their own; setting the tone for the remainder of the game. Both teams would exchange scoring sprees, but Seton Hall simply could not close the gap.

The Hall was pressuring late, and got to within five points of tying the Hoyas. After a Georgetown offensive foul, the Pirates had an opportunity to cut the lead to three, but KhadeenCarrington was blocked my L.J. Peak, sealing Seton Hall’s fate.

Seton Hall ended just 7-for-17 from the free throw line, compared to the Hoyas who went 24-for-37 from the charity stripe.

Angel Delgado continued his head-turning rookie campaign, finishing with 10 points and 15 rebounds on 5-for-10 shooting,picking up his Big East-leading tenth double-double of the season. Brandon Mobley had 15 points, and Sterling Gibbs took over the second half with 18 points, 22 total, in the final 20 minutes.

But a lack of help from the bench and other starters hurt the Pirates. Isaiah Whitehead was ineffective, finishing with two points on 1-for-8 shooting, but had five assists. 

Seton Hall, who reached the semifinals as the eight-seed last year, will once again look to create some magic in the Big East Tournament. The Pirates will take on Marquette on Wednesday, March 11 at 7pm at Madison Square Garden. WSOU will have full coverage beginning at 6:45pm.

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