Seton Hall 76, Marist 63: Tempo-Free Recap

By Ray Floriani (@rfloriani)

All good things must come to an end, or so the saying admonishes. The good in this case relies on your perspective, or bench. Brian Giorgis of Marist owned a 28-0 record against Seton Hall’s Tony Bozzella. Those games were from their Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference days when Bozzella built an Iona team that could eventually compete with Marist, but not enough to get in the win column.

On Tuesday at Marist’s McCann Arena, Seton Hall earned a hard-fought 76-63 victory over the Red Foxes. The Hall is 2-0 on the young season, while Marist dropped to 0-3. The numbers of note:

Possessions: Seton hall 81, Marist 84

Offensive efficiency: Seton Hall 94, Marist 75

FOUR FACTORS:

eFG%: Seton Hall 53, Marist 47

Free Throw Rate: Seton Hall 11, Marist 10

Offensive Rebound%: Seton Hall 24, Marist 33

Turnover Rate: Seton Hall 20, Marist 30

What Seton Hall did well: Respond to the challenge. On the road coming off a five-point second quarter and down 15 at the half, the Pirates stared adversity down. They came out strong to start the second half, regaining the lead by outscoring the Red Foxes 31-8 in the third quarter.

What Marist did well: Get the early lead and rebound. They couldn’t sustain, but the Red Foxes did build a 39-24 halftime lead. Marist also showed high marks in offensive rebounding percentage by grabbing a dozen (Rebekah Hand led with four) boards on the offensive end.

Leading scorers and EF:

Seton Hall: JaQuan Jackson 18 points, EF 20

Marist: Hannah Hand 12 points, EF 17

Turnovers are the defensive factor of the four. Seton Hall forced Marist into a 30 percent turnover rate. Forced is the key word. This wasn’t just idly throwing the ball away by virtue of carelessness. It was a case of defensive pressure by the Pirates. The Red Foxes committed 29 turnovers. The 20 Pirate steals were testament to the defensive pressure imposed by Bozzella’s club.

It wasn’t a case of Giorgis dropping a game to Tony Bozzella. The Seton Hall mentor is an excellent coach, and there were close calls (the 2007 MAAC championship game as exhibit ‘A’) during that streak that went the Red Foxes’ way. It wasn’t only a case of falling to an unprecedented 0-3. The loss of junior guard Allie Clement (8 points in 18 minutes before exiting injured) was another point of concern, as her status is still unsettled. In the end, you can chalk it up to those turnovers. Giorgis preaches care of the ball and value of every possession. Losing possessions to turnovers drives him crazy. It had to on Tuesday night.