WSOU

Preview: Seton Hall Plays No. 22 Marquette in Big East Home Showdown

Date: January 25, 2022

By: Jonathan Heite

Seton Hall's Bryce Aiken stands on the court during a road game against the Marquette Golden Eagles.

Jeff Hanisch/USA TODAY Sports

Tonight is a make-or-break game for the Seton Hall men’s basketball team.

After a highly anticipated, students-only home matchup against St. John’s at Walsh Gymnasium on Monday, which resulted in 84-63 beatdown from the Red Storm, the Pirates head back to Prudential Center to take on the hottest team in the Big East.

Seton Hall (12-6, 3-5 conference) will host No. 22 Marquette (14-6, 6-3 conference) for the first time since they fell to the Golden Eagles back on Jan. 15 by a score of 73-72.

Pirates’ fans know how that one ended, with Bryce Aiken getting called for a costly foul that resulted in Greg Elliott icing the game from the free throw line, as well as the Harvard transfer suffering a concussion that’s kept him out of action since.

In this previous game, Aiken still led the way in scoring with 28 points on 5/8 shooting from three, Alexis Yetna secured a monster 15-point, 16-rebound performance, Jared Rhoden had 12 points, and Ike Obiagu finished with seven blocks.

Marquette was dominant on offense throughout the night, as they shot 11/22 from three as a team and had a few big-time scorers. Darryl Morsell ended with 26 points and five rebounds, Justin Lewis tallied 18 points and three steals, and Kam Jones collected nine points and four assists.

This Golden Eagles team is absolutely surging, as after their win over the then-No. 20 Pirates, they took care of business at Villanova (57-54) on Jan. 19 and Xavier (75-64) at home on Jan. 23. They are riding into tonight with six straight victories, and they currently have five total wins over top-25 opponents, the best in the country, which allowed to be deservedly ranked for the first time since their No. 19 spot back on Feb. 17, 2020.

This time around, Seton Hall will try to limit stars on Marquette such as Lewis, who was most recently named the Naismith and Big East Player of the Week during last week’s two victories. The redshirt freshman hit a game-winning three in the Villanova victory along with 21 points, and he also scored 20 points and 13 rebounds in the win against the Musketeers.

This game is crucial for the Pirates to win, and after poor performances from some of their starters during the St. John’s loss, tonight can be a huge bounce-back game in an arena where they last took down the UConn Huskies in a 90-87 overtime thriller back on Jan. 8.

In addition, Obiagu has recorded at least one block in his last 27 games, which is a feat that is currently the best in the nation, is only two blocks away from tying Samuel Dalembert’s record (167) in the program.

The graduate student will look to make some history just a few hours from now, so be sure to tune into 89.5 FM WSOU at 8:30 p.m. to see if the Pirates can get back on the right track. Chris Kiely and Ryan Johnston will be on the call from the Rock, and Christian Gardner and Wilnir Louis will be on air for pregame, halftime, and Hall Line.

Jonathan Heite is the Web Editor for WSOU Sports and can be reached at wsousportswebeditor@gmail.com.

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

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