WSOU

Recap: No. 25 Seton Hall Wins Third Straight in Home Victory Over Wagner, 85-63

Date: December 1, 2021

By: Justin Nicosia

Seton Hall's Alexis Yetna drives to the basket during a home game against Wagner.

Seton Hall Athletics

After a slow first half, at the end of which the Pirates led by just two, the Seton Hall men’s basketball team went on to beat the Wagner Seahawks by a final score of 85-63 on Wednesday night.

"The biggest thing I did was shorten our rotation—in the first half, I played nine guys,” said head coach Kevin Willard when asked why Seton Hall played much better after halftime. “It's hard to play that many guys and expect them to be in rhythm, but I'm still trying to figure that out."

Wagner’s second half struggles came due to being shorthanded coming into the game. They played without their head coach, Bashir Mason, and their two leading scorers, Alex Morales and Will Martinez due to COVID-19 protocols.

Three Wagner players did score in double figures, as forwards Raekwon Rogers and Jahbril Price-Noel had 15 and 11, respectively, while senior guard Elijah Ford had 10.

Javier Ezquerra and Zaire Williams were Wagner’s other two starters, and Ezquerra had a weak performance, scoring just three points on 1/10 from the field. He also turned the ball over six times, and Ziare Williams had seven points but was just 1/6 from three.

On the Seton Hall side of things, Jared Rhoden recorded a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Rhoden was amongst six Pirates to score double figures and joining him for the team-lead in points was Tyrese Samuel, who also scored 15 on an efficient 7/11 from the floor.

Jamir Harris, who scored 12, Alexis Yetna, who scored 11, and Tray Jackson, who scored 10, were some of the other Pirates to break the double-digit mark in the scoring column.

The most impressive performance of the night came from Kadary Richmond, who flirted with a double-double in his 28 minutes on the court. The Syracuse transfer scored 10 points on 4/7 shooting from the field, and he also recorded nine assists and six rebounds, while also making a huge impact on the defensive end. There, he stole four Wagner passes and blocked a shot.

"It's a good feeling to play with a true point guard,” said Rhoden, when asked about Richmond. “I know if I give him the ball, he's going to pass the ball to find me to score".

In today’s performance, Richmond brought his assists-per-game number up to 3.4, and this level of play is what the Pirates faithful were looking forward to seeing once he announced his transfer this past offseason.

Seton Hall’s season will continue on Saturday with a game at the Walsh Gymnasium against the Division-II Nyack Warriors. Joe Matthews and Haley Zemek will be on the call at noon for that game.

When asked about the team’s approach to a game against a non-Division I opponent, Rhoden said, "I think [Saturday] is a really good rhythm game for our offense before we play Texas, a really good team, on Thursday."

That Texas game will be on Thursday at 7 p.m. with Rony Jerez and Christian Gardner on the call. Be sure to tune into both of those games!

Justin Nicosia can be reached at justin.nicosia@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Men's Basketball, Sports, WSOU

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