In an uninspiring performance by the Seton Hall Pirates that required a miraculous late game shot by senior Point Guard, Jordan Theodore, the Seton Hall Pirates (1-0) managed to survive a scare and win in OT vs. the St. Francis Terriers of New York by a final score of 75 to 71. After the jump, read the entire recap of this mostly miserable game to watch.
The game began with the Terriers shooting the rock very well. They quickly took a 9-4 lead behind 7 points from one time Seton Hall target and Iona commit, Ben Mockford. After a T.V. Timeout, the Pirates seemed to turn it around, building a 16-9 lead with 9:54 left in the first half behind strong starts from Fuquan Edwin and Herb Pope. Then it all started to unfold. Nothing would fall for the Pirates. They turned it over. They missed Free Throws. The Terriers would not miss from 3. And at halftime, the Pirates were trailing 33 to 25 and it should have been worse.
However, the Pirates came out quickly in the 2nd half behind strong performances from Patrick Auda and Herb Pope, getting within 3 in the first two minutes. However, the Terriers answered with some more big 3 point shots and built a 52-39 lead with 12:02 to play and everything looked bleak for the Pirates. Than freshman Haralds Karlis hit a big three, the Pirates first made three of the game, to cut it back to a 10 point game. Over the next 10 minutes, the Pirates fought hard to cut it to a 2 point game with 1:02 to play, behind some strong play by Herb Pope and Patrick Auda. Then it looked as if the Pirates would falter in another late game situation, just like they did all of the past two seasons. With 9 seconds left and the game still 62-60, Jordan Theodore turned it over and Seton Hall had to foul quickly.
However, the Terriers missed the 1st FT of a 1 and 1 and SHU rebounded. Willard took a Timeout with 4 seconds to go and the ball at 1/2 court and drew up a beautiful play. Jordan drove left, took the contact and finished the layup to tie it at 62 with 1 second to go. Then overtime happened, and Jordan continued to dominate. On the first possession of OT, JT drove left again, took the contact, finished, and got an and 1. And that was the last time the Terriers would be tied for the entire game. Over the next 4 minutes and change, Jordan Theodore made 6 FT’s to give him 9 points for the overtime and 11 points for the last 5:04 of the game. Seton Hall hung on to defeat the pesky Terriers by the final margin of 75-71. Last season or the year before, Seton Hall loses this game 10/10 times. However, they showed a mental toughness I have not seen from the Pirates in a long time, and led by Seniors Herb Pope and Jordan Theodore, they looked confident at the end of the game despite struggling all game. Despite playing awful all game, Jordan Theodore showed why Kevin Willard believes he is a top flight PG by coming up time and time again late in the game. A performance that I did not mention yet was that of freshman Haralds Karlis, who scored 8 points on 2-2 shooting and 3-5 from the FT line and played some great defense.
Here are your key stats for the game:
St. Francis:
Travis Nichols: 25Pts (10-16 FG, 3-4FT), 14REB, 3STL
Ben Mockford: 13Pts (4-12FG, 1-2FT), 4REB, 5TO
Dre Calloway: 10Pts (4-12FG, 2-3FT), 3REB, 6AST, 7TO
Stefan Perunicic: 11Pts (4-10FG, 0-1FT), 5REB
Field Goals: 27-67 (40.6%)
Free Throws: 5-11 (45.5%)
Three Pointers: 12-26 (46.2%)
Seton Hall:
Herb Pope: 21Pts (8-16FG, 5-7FT), 14REB, 2BLK, 2STL, 2TO
Jordan Theodore: 25Pts (8-23FG, 9-10FT), 4REB, 2AST, 2STL, 1BLK, 4TO
Patrik Auda: 8Pts (3-8FG, 2-3FT), 6REB, 2AST, 1STL, 1BLK, 1TO
Fuquan Edwin: 10Pts (4-7FG, 2-6FT), 5REB, 4STL, 2TO
Haralds Karlis: 8Pts (2-2FG, 3-5FT), 3REB, 1BLK, 1TO
Field Goals: 26-63 (41.3%)
Free Throws: 22-37 (59.5%)
Three Pointers: 1-13 (7.7%)
That is all I got for you guys tonight. Check back Monday for a preview of the Seton Hall vs. VCU game in the Charleston Classic.
