JP's 5 Thoughts: Seton Hall makes Garden Statement, beats Rutgers

Myles Powell's 28 points drove Seton Hall past Rutgers Saturday, avenging last year's loss in Garden State Hardwood Classic. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, NJ -- For the uninitiated, Rutgers-Seton Hall is almost never boring, is always as intense a rivalry as there is, and is usually decided by close games. 

Check off all those boxes today at Prudential Center, as Seton Hall avenged last year's loss in Piscataway by taking down the rival Scarlet Knights, 72-66, in front of a raucous sellout crowd.

Here are the 5 Thoughts as the Pirates improve to 7-3 with a big week looming to close non-conference play:

1. Hangin' With Mr. Hooper

Stop us if you've heard this before: Myles Powell was the best player on the floor today, leading the Pirates to victory with 28 points on 8-for-17 shooting, including six made threes, taking the Joe Calabrese Award as the annual rivalry game's MVP.

He did this despite Rutgers throwing everything AND the kitchen sink at him defensively. Nothing worked, as aside from a dry spell in the second half which the Scarlet Knights used to slice the Pirates' lead to three points, Powell again ate the other team's lunch. 

"Our game plan was Myles Powell," Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said. "We spent four days on it and watched everyone guard him."

For Powell, though, that's just business as usual.

"I've pretty much seen it all this year," Powell quipped afterwards. "They tried a box-and-one... they put the 6'10" guy on me (Issa Thiam). It just seemed they were switching guys. I know pretty much coming into every game now that I'm going to get everybody's best defender. I just have to stay ready."

Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard used a different tack when talking about his star guard.

"Myles Powell is a hooper," he said. "A flat-out hooper. It doesn't matter if it's practice, a pickup game, a big game. He just wants to hoop."

The praise has been constant all year, and Powell has deserved every ounce of it. There are a lot of reasons to point to why teams win games, and for Seton Hall, one of those reasons in pretty much all of its wins is that the Pirates have Myles Powell, and the other team doesn't. And that's a wonderful feeling for Pirate fans.

2. Quick-Trigger Mamu

Powell was Batman today for the Pirates, with all the tools in the belt, but every Batman needs a Robin, and today that was Sandro Mamukelashvili. The sophomore forward poured in 15 points and finished one rebound shy of a double-double. He only took five shots in the game, but four of them were threes and he hit a trio of them, including two huge ones in the second half when Rutgers was trying to claw its way back into it.

Having come in just 3-for-16 from the arc this year, that likely surprised Rutgers. At the very least, it wasn't on their scouting report to deny Mamu the outside jumper. Give credit to the big guy, and to an adjustment from the coaching staff.

"He gets in a bad habit of getting a long trigger," Willard said, referring to him bringing the ball down, then rising back up for the shot. "When you're 6'11" and have a long trigger, your timing's gonna be off. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday,  we probably shot 500 shots each day to get him to shorten his trigger. He has a good release point, and I think that helped him simplify his shot."

Score one for the Georgian, and the staff, too. Without the pair of threes he made down the stretch, we may be talking about a much-different end result.

3. Standing Tall

Speaking of heroes of the game, Romaro Gill deserves a big hand. The 7'2" center came in and had his best game by far, tying his season-best with 12 minutes of court time for good reason. He also registered five blocked shots, aiding the Pirates and whipping up the crowd.

"I think Ro came in and changed the game for us a little bit," Willard said. "I thought he gave us a really good spark. This was a big game for him. (Shaquille) Doorson's seven feet tall, the other kid's seven feet. I thought he gave us a great energy, a great presence."

It was great to see Gill step up and play that way on a day where Taurean Thompson, one of the heroes in the win over Kentucky last Saturday, was saddled with early foul trouble and wasn't a big factor.

4. Defending The Rock

The Pirates defended well in this game, and the stats back it up. Rutgers shot 31 percent from the floor, along with just 6-for-29 from three-point range. In the first half, the Scarlet Knights only made 25 percent of their 40 field goal attempts, and two of their 16 threes.

A large part of that, especially in the first half, was Quincy McKnight. Other than blocks and steals, defense doesn't exactly have a stat that leaps out on the box score, but despite a pedestrian final line of two points, two boards and four assists, McKnight was one of the most-important factors in the contest, locking down Rutgers' sophomore playmaker, Geo Baker. 

"(He) might be the biggest difference defensively between this year and last year," Willard said. "Quincy can lock in on a guy and understands what he's doing. I thought our pick-and-roll defense on (Baker) was really good. He had a couple turnovers that frustrated him a little bit."

Baker was scoreless in the first half on 0-for-4 shooting with two fouls and three turnovers. McKnight can score when he needs to, and was a point machine at Sacred Heart before transferring, but that role is not his main one with the Pirates, and this was the latest example of the lead guard from Connecticut doing his job.

The only negative to the Pirates' defense was the rebounding margin, as they were minus-14 overall, minus-17 on the offensive glass, and gave up 20 second-chance points. Rutgers played to their strength in this regard (they were top-50 in the nation in grabbing their own misses), but in the end, the Hall just forced too many misses for the Scarlet Knights to get over the hump.

5. Looking Forward

Having won six of its last seven games since Thanksgiving, Seton Hall has a big week ahead. They first have Sacred Heart at home on Wednesday night at 6:30, a game that they must not overlook with another big Saturday test against Maryland next weekend. The Pioneers are nowhere near the level of the Terrapins, so the goal will be to keep the momentum going. It worked for them before -- and recently -- after the tough loss on December 1 to Louisville. With Kentucky looming the following Saturday, Seton Hall thrashed New Hampshire by 20 points mid-week. So there is a precedent that the Pirates won't overlook their Northeast Conference foe.

We'll have coverage for you as usual on Daly Dose of Hoops for that one, as well as the game in College Park next Saturday. As for now, the state of New Jersey -- in politics and in basketball -- is deep blue once more.

"The trophy's where it's supposed to be now," Powell said. "Seton Hall runs this state."