Seton Hall
Xavier slips away with narrow 70-69 victory over Seton Hall
Date: February 20, 2019By Wilnir Louis
Seton Hall was able to fight back from a 16-point deficit, but they did not have enough magic in the end as they fell to the Xavier Musketeers 70-69 at the Prudential Center.
In the first half, Xavier was able to come out of the gates strong, hitting their first three shots to go up 6-0 with 18:18 left in the half. The Pirates were able to claw back, and a three pointer by Quincy McKnight and a fast break layup by Myles Powell tied the game up 10-10 with 15:36 left. Throughout the next six minutes of action, Xavier would be able to take the lead up to four points. It would hang there until a three by Naji Marshall would allow the Musketeers to lead 29-24 with 8:06 left in the half. The Hall was able to go on a 10-2 run, and with 5:15 left in the first half, the Pirates were able to get their first lead of the game. The lead would teeter back and forth until a 9-2 run by Xavier allowed the Musketeers to enter into the halftime break up 46-38.
At the break, the Pirates and the Musketeers were playing evenly; both teams made 17 shots and 3 shots from behind the arc. However, Seton Hall was outrebounded 22-12 in the first half, paired with Xavier shooting 12 free throws, which was nine more than Seton Hall’s three attempts.
To begin the second half, Seton Hall was able to cut into Xavier’s lead early on. With 13:42 left in the game, Sandro Mamukelashvili was able to get a layup to make the score 49-47 in favor of the Musketeers. Coming out of the U12 media timeout, Xavier caught fire. Within five minutes, Seton Hall found their backs to the wall. Marshall was able to hit a three-point shot which balloon the score to 68-52 with 6:23 left on the clock. The Hall, protecting home court to the best of their ability, was able to cut their deficit to single digits after a Powell steal and slam made the score 68-60 entering the final media timeout.
Myles Cale was able to hit a three point to make the score 68-63 with 3:17 left. After Powell’s free throws and Elias Harden layup, Cale was able to come back down and hit a step back three to make the game one possession, with the score being 70-67 with 1:48 left. Shavar Reynolds was able to draw a foul and hit two free throws to make the score 70-69 with 52 seconds left, but the score would stay like that when the buzzer sounded after a missed three-pointer by Reynolds.
After the contest, Powell attributed the loss to lagging focus by the team.
“I think we came in preparing for them to roll over for us, and in this league that’s not what happens.”
Cale perfectly echoed Powell’s reasoning for the team falling to the Musketeers.
“Coach said we were kind of loosey-goosey at practice and we had to tighten up, and that’s all on us, we should’ve had our focus up.”
As for Powell, he continued to show why he is the captain for this Seton Hall team when looking ahead at the Red Storm.
“This was a little bump in the road but we’ve been taking bumps in the road, and our backs have been on the wall all year. We’re not going to stop believing in each other and keep pushing for our goal and I’m going to make sure of that.”
Seton Hall will have the opportunity to right their wrongs when they take the short trip to New York to play the St. John’s Red Storm at Madison Square Garden. That matchup will be at 8 P.M on Feb. 23, and all of the action will be covered by 89.5 FM or the iHeartRadio app.
Wilnir Louis can be reached at wilnir.louis@student.shu.edu.
