WSOU

Recap: Pirates Stumble at The Rock in 82-60 Loss to No. 16 Xavier

Date: February 25, 2023

By: Joe Walls

The Pirates help each other up after a tough fall.

Kayla Fonseca/WSOU

It was a tough game for the Seton Hall Pirates as they hosted the No. 16 Xavier Musketeers at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. What felt like a game the Pirates could have won at times slowly turned into an empty-stadium blowout with a final score of 82-60.

The game felt sluggish from the first whistle, as the Pirates got outclassed in the first half after Xavier scored 40 points. After the half, the Pirates came out with a bit more energy trying to claw their way back into the game.

This came by the help of Dre Davis who had 14 points on the night, especially without the help of Tyreese Samuel who was in foul trouble and K.C. Ndefo who only played about 21 minutes in a must-win game.

That is a piece of the puzzle that felt like it was missing during the entire game, the realization that they needed to win. The Musketeers were the final chance for the Pirates to get a ranked victory, and even then a quad one or two win.

Just looking at the stats from both sides, The Hall was outplayed in every facet. For the Pirates, 39 percent from the field, Xavier shot forty eight percent. For The Hall, 27 rebounds, Xavier had 15 more at 42 on the night.

One bright spot of the night was watching freshman Jaquan Sanders make an appearance on the floor and have a good night scoring. Coach Holloway even made a point that now the only missing piece for Sanders is his defense, who feels like a scoring spark plug at the moment.

Looking at the other side, the leader for the Musketeers was Souley Boum who had 23 points on the night, just five points off from his season high against Georgetown.

This was probably the final time the Pirates had a chance to capture an at large bid for the NCAA tournament in March, and now they will have to make a run in the BIG EAST Tournament.

Before that, Seton Hall is back in action Feb. 28 against Villanova for senior night. You can catch all the action right here on WSOU 89.5 FM with tipoff at 8:30 p.m., where John Makuch and Will Swankie will have the call.

Joe Walls can be reached at josepg.walls@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports

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