Saturday, February 9, 2019

JP's 5 Thoughts: Seton Hall surges late to grab critical win against Creighton

Myles Powell was number-one option for Seton Hall Saturday, scoring 22 points and willing Pirates to victory over Creighton. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, NJ -- Seton Hall came into tonight's game needing a win against a shorthanded Creighton team at home. After a mostly rocky second half, the Pirates found their sea legs late, and, led by their best player, emerged with a 63-58 win over the Bluejays in Newark.

It came down to the final few possessions once again for the Hall, and here are 5 Thoughts from courtside:

1. Myles Takes Over Again

Well, stop us if you've heard this before. What ended up being the difference late in this game is that one team had Myles Powell and the other team didn't. With Seton Hall down 54-48 after a tough, five-point swing with a missed layup by Quincy McKnight and a three-pointer by Ty-Shon Alexander, Powell took over the game. The junior scored 13 of the Pirates' final 15 points, including drawing a foul shooting a three-pointer, and picking up two critical rebounds that, along with his perfect foul shooting, helped win the day for the Pirates.

To wit: He missed an open three with 19 seconds left and the Pirates up a pair, but followed his miss, and tipped it to himself, resulting in a foul. He then grabbed the board after Davion Mintz missed the front end of a one-and-one with seven seconds left, and sealed the game with two more free throws. 

"Myles is Myles," McKnight, who finished with 14 points, commented afterwards. "Myles has been Myles the whole season for us. I trust him with the ball down the stretch. When we need a bucket, you know Myles is going to get us one, either a foul or a bucket."

All told, Powell finished with 22 points and seven boards, and made all 10 of his free throws. How critical were the freebies? The final margin was five points, and Seton Hall made 16 free throws while Creighton made only 10. There's your ballgame.

2. To Foul, Or Not To Foul?

When you're up three with only seconds remaining (heck, sometimes longer), the hot coaching wisdom of the day says that you should foul intentionally to prevent a potential game-tying three-pointer. While there are definite examples as to why this is, Kevin Willard never really likes to do it. 

Tonight, though, he did, with Shavar Reynolds fouling Mintz and sending him to the line for a one-and-one, which ended up working brilliantly when Mintz bricked the first attempt to cap a one-point, 0-for-11 field goal, minus-16 night. 

At the same time, he didn't do it against, say, Kentucky at Madison Square Garden, and it burned them back then. So, why the change, coach?

"Two big factors," Willard said. "One, (Greg McDermott)'s a really good coach in end-of-game situations, and they have enough shooters on the floor (to hurt you). Two, I was worried that if we did go to overtime with our foul trouble, Myles having four and Q having four, more than likely, one of them is going to pick up their fifth."

It worked this time, but perhaps not enough to go against the coach's philosophy in the future unless the situation with foul trouble is similar.

3. Where's Taurean?

Taurean Thompson did not dress for tonight's game, but fear not: It is not injury-related.

"Violation of team rules," Willard said. "He understands what he did, he apologized, and we've moved on."

It will just be a one-game suspension for the mercurial forward, and Seton Hall will need his size going into their next game (more on that in a second).

4. A Tale Of Two Halves?

More like a tale of one half, repeated. Seton Hall got off to a 14-5 start in this game, then opened the second half on a 10-0 run, forcing Creighton timeouts both times. But in both halves, the Bluejays then adjusted and made big runs of their own (10-0 in the first half to get right back in it, then a big, extended 25-7 run to eventually go up six at the final media timeout before the last segment we described earlier).

Both times, the way the cold-shooting Jays got themselves off the deck was offensive rebounding and second-chance points, as they finished with 16 offensive caroms and 17 second-chance tallies. The turnover bug was a bit of an issue in the first 10 minutes of the game for the Pirates, but time and again, because they shot so poorly, Creighton couldn't capitalize on the giveaways.

It was interesting to see the same thing happen in both halves. Most of the time this season, the Pirates have surged ahead with big things in the second half of games. Tonight, they basically just repeated the script from the first half.

5. Crowded Field

That brings me to my final point tonight: The Pirates really, really needed this game, and the reason was mainly for their NCAA Tournament chances, but also because the Big East is so crowded this year. The Pirates' win put them at 5-6 in the league and in a FIVE-way tie for third place in the conference with St. John's, Georgetown, Butler and DePaul, the former two of which lost today to forge the situation.

Willard shed some light on the subject after the game.

"Greg and I were talking about it before the game, just wait until next year," the head coach said. "Our league is young. I'm not looking forward to next year. Creighton has everyone back, we have everyone back for the most part, Marquette has everyone back. It's crazy, and the most balanced (the league has been) by far. There is no weak team. I'm impressed with how young the league is and how hard all the teams are playing."

The Pirates, therefore, cannot take anyone for granted, least of all the Hoyas, who come to Newark on Wednesday night featuring a young, but talented team. Georgetown likes to push the pace, with the top scoring offense in the league, and they also boast the best rebounding offense (along with the third-best rebounding margin) in the Big East. Needless to say, Seton Hall will need all hands on deck when it comes to the glass on on defense.

Seton Hall has proved this season that when they consistently rebound defensively, they have the explosiveness to turn it into runs that buoy the whole team. They'll have to be focused on Wednesday night, as they face another game that, on their home floor, they are really going to need. 

Tipoff is at 8:30 pm at Prudential Center (thanks, TV!).

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