Pirates Finish Hawaii Trip Strong With Win Over Washington State

Published: Wednesday, November 26, 2025

by Chris Heite

LAHAINA, H.I. - With the grey jerseys in full force, the Seton Hall Pirates (7-1) defeated the Washington State Cougars (3-5) in their final matchup of the Hawaii trip.

The first half proved to be a solid showing from the Pirates, and an uphill battle for the Cougars.  The Hall took an early lead with the help of AJ Staton-McCray and Mike Williams III. Both scorers were tied with the team lead in points at half, having nine. 

Even with the offensive success, the Pirates still had some struggles on defense, with inconvenient fouls and a lack of rebounding. These issues were present in the loss against USC, and certainly carried over in the matchup against Washington State.

At the end of the half, Seton Hall had a 37-27 lead, with scoring being spread out other than Williams and Staton-McCray. Yet, with the nature of most games, the Pirates needed to come out strong in the second half if they wanted to take third place in Maui. 

Coming out of the break, the Hall kept the first half intensity up in the consolation matchup. Staton-McCray continued to pave the way, being not only one of the best players on Seton Hall, but of the entire tournament in Maui.  

To put it simply, the Pirates never looked back throughout the back half of the game, and defeated Washington State 75-61.

Seton Hall took third place in the Maui Invitational, proving many doubters wrong while doing so. With a convincing win over a ranked opponent, and a decisive win over a lesser one, the Pirates certainly can take many positives out of the Hawaii trip.

In the face of the many positives that came out of the matchup this evening, the one glaring negative was point guard Adam “Budd” Clark, who fouled out for a second straight game. In contrast to the USC matchup (which was a solid showing), Clark finished with a mere two points and of course, five fouls. Rolling into conference play, Clark will certainly have to clean up his game to stay out of foul trouble in the pivotal moments.

Staton-McCray finished with 20 points, solidifying his name as a potential all-conference player for the Pirates. With the shooting prowess that comes with Staton-McCray along with the scoring ability of players such as Najai Hines and Tajuan Simpkins, the Pirates will certainly be a team to look out for in the future.

“What makes us different from last year is I got guys who love playing for this team,” said Coach Holloway in a postgame interview on ESPN2. “They like to play with each other," he continued. 

With the hope of Coach Holloway, along with the performance of the team, the future is certainly bright for the Pirates as they roll on this season.

Seton Hall will look to keep the momentum going when they return to historic Walsh Gymnasium one week from today, when they take on Central Connecticut State at 7 p.m., with AJ Rayer and Jake Marcial on the call.

Chris Heite is the Station Manager and can be reached at chris.heite@student.shu.edu.

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