Myles Cale led Seton Hall with 21 points as Pirates held off St. John’s in first of two games in three days against Red Storm. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
NEW YORK — In a scheduling quirk, the Big East’s Hudson River rivalry became much like the old crosstown Subway Series doubleheaders of the late 1990s and early 2000s when Seton Hall and St. John’s lined up to play twice in just 72 hours. And in the first leg of the double dip Saturday, one train rolled full speed ahead while the other lies stalled and close to derailment after yet another soul-searching defeat.
Playing for the first time in a week, Seton Hall used its respite to grind out a 66-60 victory over the Red Storm inside Madison Square Garden to improve to 12-5 overall and 3-4 in Big East play with a rematch against the same Johnnies squad Monday night, inside historic Walsh Gymnasium. The Pirates relied on stingy defense, rendering St. John’s to shooting just 29 percent from the floor, and a commanding 60-43 rebounding edge to seal the win as they embark on a stretch of three games in five days.
The postgame thoughts from Saturday’s matinee are as follows:
1) Madison Cale Garden
Myles Cale has had some of his finest hours at The World’s Most Famous Arena, including his heroic game-winning 3-pointer against Kentucky as a sophomore back in 2018. On this day, Cale — now a fifth-year senior and Seton Hall’s all-time leader in games played at 139 — recaptured the magic, doing so to the tune of 21 points, nine rebounds, and a vintage defensive effort against Julian Champagnie that will be elaborated upon later in this post.
While Big East expert John Fanta of Fox Sports insists that the aforementioned Kentucky game remains Cale’s magnum opus, the winning coach one-upped the declaration.
“I think this was his best game,” Kevin Willard proclaimed. “He always plays really well here, but I think this was his best game he’s ever played just because he didn’t settle to be a shooter. I thought he was aggressive, I thought he was getting to the rim and I thought he did a phenomenal job on Champagnie, obviously, because Julian’s one of the best players in the league and to have him shoot the night he had, that’s a pretty good compliment.”
“It’s the lights,” Cale quipped when asked exactly what about the Garden and its mystique brings out the best in him. “It’s a lot of history that goes down here, even coming up to the arena, walking up the little ramp, you just get the chills and you feel good, like you’re just about to play a good game, you know?”
Alexis Yetna tallied 16 points and 15 rebounds in Seton Hall’s win Saturday. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
2) Lex Luthor
Willard described Alexis Yetna in the offseason as almost a left-handed version of Angel Delgado, the rebounding king of the Big East. The Frenchman and South Florida transfer lived up to that billing Saturday, amassing 16 points and 15 rebounds in what may be his best effort in a Seton Hall uniform to date.
“He’s crashing the offensive boards great,” Cale said of Yetna. “I wouldn’t really compare him to Angel because I feel like they’re two different players, but rebounding-wise, I would say they’re right there, hand in hand.”
“I think Lex has kind of found a groove of what Big East basketball’s all about,” Willard added. “He’s doing a lot of junkyard dog work, he’s doing a lot of things. I think he’s playing very well defensively, he’s rebounding the ball really well, I’d like to see him be a little bit more aggressive in the post at times, but I think he’s playing like a typical high-level Big East player.”
3) Champagnie Taste, Beer Money
Champagnie, St. John’s leading scorer, was bottled up all afternoon by Seton Hall, rendered into a 3-for-14 effort and just nine points total, breaking a string of 47 consecutive games in which the junior and All-American hopeful had reached double digits on the scoreboard. Cale will get credited for the lockdown by and large, but the graduate student admitted he saw an opening after watching another opposing Big East player write the foreword to the book, so to speak.
“I watched a lot of their Creighton game, and I saw Alex O’Connell try to make his shots uncomfortable,” Cale said of the Bluejay forward’s defense of Champagnie Wednesday in Omaha. “He actually did a good job on him too, so I was watching a lot of his film. (Champagnie) uses his size for his ability, so I just had to hold my ground a little bit more.”
“We had a week to prepare for them and our coaches did a phenomenal job just breaking it down,” he added. “All we did was go out there and execute.”
4) St. Elsewhere
At 10-7 overall and just 2-4 in Big East play, St. John’s is far from where most experts and fans projected it would be, a source of major consternation on the corner of Union and Utopia. Head coach Mike Anderson said he does not make excuses, but his attempt Saturday to explain the missteps and disappointment in Queens certainly sounded like one.
“I think we still continue to be a work in progress,” he conceded, despite the Red Storm’s winless record in six Quadrant 1 games. “You always want the pieces to come together quicker than not, but for some reason, we can’t. We can get there, but we can’t get over the hump. We’ve just gotta continue to work and grind, and clean up some of the little things. Some of that falls on me. I’ve just gotta find the right combinations.”
“We’ve got nine new players. The leaders on your team are some of the young guys who just got here last year, in a pandemic year. I don’t make excuses, but I think that’s part of it.”
In addition to Champagnie’s inefficiency, St. John’s backcourt of Posh Alexander, Montez Mathis and Dylan Addae-Wusu shot a combined 7-of-35 against a Seton Hall team not only missing Bryce Aiken to concussion protocol, but also only getting a 5-for-30 day from Jared Rhoden and Kadary Richmond.
“We’ve gotta have somebody who I think will be able to help us,” Anderson offered when it was suggested that maybe Tareq Coburn could have played more than the three-minute cup of coffee he logged. “Obviously, it didn’t take place today. We got to the free throw line as well and didn’t cash in on it. Basketball’s about making decisions, and you’ve gotta make the right decisions. It’s something we work on. We just didn’t execute.”
5) Monday Night Raw
Monday’s game, rescheduled from December 20 due to Seton Hall’s COVID pause right before St. John’s contracted the virus itself, will be played on Seton Hall’s campus at Walsh Gymnasium due to the Prudential Center being booked for a concert. The 1,400-seat bandbox will be occupied entirely by students, as Seton Hall decided to distribute tickets in South Orange to an enthusiastic crowd of undergraduate fans that will surely turn the ancient relic into a raucous environment.
“They’ve been great all year,” Willard said of the Seton Hall student body and its support. “And they’re going to be great on Monday. Home games are huge, so having an all-student game is kind of cool.”
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