Game preview: Injury-riddled Seton Hall matches up with No.7 Maryland at the Prudential Center

Date: December 18, 2019

By: Liam Plate

For the first time this year, the Seton Hall Pirates (6-4 Overall) head into a game unranked. The Pirates are coming off a shocking 20-point loss to in-state rival Rutgers (8-3 Overall), but Seton Hall looks to turn things around when the No.7 Maryland Terrapins (10-1 Overall) come to the Prudential Center tonight at 7 p.m.

In the Pirates’ most recent contest, they struggled to find their stroke early on, as Rutgers started the game off on a 14-0 run until Anthony Nelson made a three-pointer with 14:01 left in the first half. Seton Hall could not get back into the game as they continued to struggle to find opportunities to score the ball.

Playing without Sandro Mamukelashvili, the Pirates could not find an inside presence and continued to shoot from the outside, which was not their strong suit on Saturday. Seton Hall went 8/27 from behind the arc, which led to a 29.6% three-point percentage for the game. Quincy McKnight led the way with 11 points that included three-three-pointers. The environment was electric at the RAC. The Scarlet Knights have earned all eight of their victories at home

Seton Hall played the whole second half without All-American Myles Powell. Powell went out of the game and went into concussion protocol. Powell’s concussion was so bad that he asked head coach Kevin Willard during the game, “Why are we practicing at Rutgers?”

While there is no set return date for Powell, all signs are pointing that his first game back will be a conference matchup on Dec. 30, versus the DePaul Blue Demons. The Pirates will be without Powell against Maryland and with Mamukelashvili already out as well, this makes the matchup even tougher for the Hall.

The top-10 Terrapins have four players that average double digits including two of the top players in the country with Anthony Cowan Jr. and Jalen Smith, which means the whole Pirates defense needs to be in sync and have perfect communication. Maryland started out the season 10-0 before just recently losing to now No. 23 Penn State in University Park, Pennsylvania. This is only Maryland’s second road game as they played seven games at home and the other three at a neutral site, which makes it tough to tell how the Terrapins will play in the Prudential Center with a loud opposing crowd but nonetheless Maryland is still a very good basketball team.

While Maryland has stellar guard play, the Terps really shine underneath as they average 42.7 rebounds per game and 5.4 blocks per game. All eyes will be on Romaro Gil and Ike Obiagu, and how they will handle the pressure underneath in Mamukelashvili’s absence.

Maryland’s strong play underneath does mean that Seton Hall’s shooting needs to be on point and players like McKnight, Myles Cale, and Jared Rhoden will need to step up. The one question that still needs to be answered is who will be the top player with both Powell and Mamukelashvili sidelined with injuries.

This is Seton Hall’s third game against a top-25 team and hope to salvage a quality win from their strong non-conference schedule. 89.5 FM WSOU will have all the coverage from the Rock as Bob Towey and Michael Daly are on the call. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. with coverage starting on 89.5 FM WSOU at 6:45 p.m. It’s a game you won’t want to miss.

Liam Plate can be reached at liam.plate@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, WSOU, Men's Basketball, Game Previews