3 Thoughts: Bediako’s career game is catalyst for rout as Pirates steamroll FDU

Jaden Bediako (15) recorded first double-double in a Seton Hall uniform as Pirates routed FDU Saturday. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose of Hoops)

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — Shaheen Holloway admitted Saturday he was nervous about his Seton Hall team’s matchup with FDU, last year’s March darling who came to Walsh Gymnasium for the Pirates’ annual non-conference tilt on campus.

The Knights, who made history last season becoming just the second No. 16 seed to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, concerned Holloway due to their press-and-run nature and high-octane offense, which exploded for 92 points in an upset of Buffalo this past Monday and topped the century mark Wednesday against Division III Penn State Brandywine.

The Hall skipper’s fears, though, were quickly assuaged.

Seton Hall jumped on the accelerator early on Saturday and never looked back, landing the first punch with a 14-2 opening salvo and only expanding its lead from there, coasting to an 85-55 victory over FDU to improve to 2-0 on the young season.

“I’ll be honest with you, I was a little nervous about this game,” Holloway remarked after the Pirates decimated FDU on the boards to the tune of a 61-28 rebounding margin. “Going up to Buffalo and doing what (FDU) did was pretty impressive. Going up there and beating a team like that on their home court, scoring 92 points and the way they played, they press and run, I was like, ‘oh my goodness, we gotta play these guys in this small gym, that’s an advantage for them.’”

“I thought we came out with great energy. I thought we set the tone early, I thought we shot way too many threes early, but once we calmed down, we were alright.”

The Pirates’ size and physicality proved to be too much for FDU (2-1) to handle from the onset, as the Knights only shot 28 percent from the floor for the game and left FDU head coach Jack Castleberry to state the obvious when explaining what went wrong.

“We got out of character tonight,” he frankly admitted. “I didn’t think that were very good at executing a lot of things. They’re really solid. They controlled the tempo, they really managed to make us play a way that we really don’t want to play. They kind of had their will with us today. (Al-Amir) Dawes is a heck of shooter, (Kadary) Richmond, I really don’t have an answer for him with his size and his ability to get to the rim. (Holloway) does a great job, as everybody knows, and they did what they were trying to do today. The size definitely bothered us, but to negate that, we didn’t do what we had to do. We got rushed tonight and they took advantage of us. They buried us early tonight, and there was no recovering from that.”

With the victory, Seton Hall is now halfway through its season-opening homestand, which next welcomes Albany to the Prudential Center Wednesday night, followed by Wagner. Until then, here are a trio of takeaways from the affairs aboard the Pirate ship:

1) Big Boy Effort from the Bigs

After two games — Monday’s opener against Saint Peter’s and October's exhibition versus NJIT — where Seton Hall’s forwards were hampered by foul trouble and lack of production, the Pirate front line responded emphatically Saturday.

Jaden Bediako tallied 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for his fifth career double-double and first as a Pirate, with Dre Davis’ 11 markers and eight caroms close behind. Sada NgaNga also had the best game of his young career, chipping in off the bench with six points and nine boards.

“I’m proud of each and every one of them,” Davis said of Seton Hall’s bigs and their collective impact. “I think they had a big presence on the boards and just an all-around game. I thought they were dominant and that’s something we’re gonna need from them moving forward.”

“What I’ve been taught is rebounding’s always about effort,” Bediako added. “Effort, attitude, energy, so I would just say we were hungry as a team to get on the backboard. And that’s going to be big as we get into Big East play.”

Seton Hall pulled down 19 offensive rebounds to clean up most putback opportunities, leading to a 24-7 edge in second chance points. Bediako passed his test with flying colors Saturday, guarding one of the most mobile mid-major forwards in FDU’s Ansley Almonor, earning plaudits from his coach as a result.

“For him, it was actually good,” said Holloway. If you watch Santa Clara play, they switch one through five, so he was used to kind of being out there. I was worried about Elijah (Hutchins-Everett) being out there because that big guy, he trails and hits a lot of threes trailing.”

“I thought Jaden came out and set the tone early for us and did what he needed to do from a defensive and offensive standpoint. Now we just have to get him to keep getting confidence in himself.”

2) An Off Knight?

FDU has impressed in its first action since March’s Cinderella turn, validating preseason hype that Castleberry, in his first season as a Division I head coach, actively acknowledged was real. The key now for Tobin Anderson’s successor, is to use this as a learning tool for not only his players, but himself as well.

“There’s been a lot of hype around us recently,” he admitted. “It’s maybe good to get humbled a little bit and get back to work. Sometimes you’ve gotta get punched in the mouth to find out what you’re made of. We won a game we probably weren’t supposed to win and then we didn’t show up tonight. I think that some of this is me getting into this too, and what our substitution patterns are to play the way we want to play. It’s been a good week of learning for us. I think we’re who we thought we were.”

“I think the thing that helped us from last year is we got a lot of guys back and they’re very self-aware. We remember there were plenty of times last year where it didn’t go our way, and it worked out pretty well for us. I think having the maturity and experience in that regard, and having them understand that there's gonna be highs and lows to every season, that we’re not gonna be the finished product here in November and we’re gonna learn a lot about ourselves through these struggles and grow from it, that’s a big advantage from last year to me.”

3) Hoist the Colors

Davis was vocal Saturday about Seton Hall needing to establish its identity. The veteran forward was not worried about the short-term future, but still emphasized the need for he and his teammates to just be themselves along the way.

“I think it’s just understanding who we are as a team, finding our identity and sticking to that,” he said. “Honestly, it doesn’t matter who we play, we just gotta be us. That’s the biggest thing.”

Holloway got to play his reserves for extended stretches in the second half with the game well in hand, something he had hoped to do Monday and would like to continue to do in order to keep his team fresh.

“Very important,” he said of the chance to develop and condition his players. “That’s what I wanted to do the first game, obviously I don’t think we played well and give Saint Peter’s credit, they came out and played well against us. But it was good to get the bench in and get those guys some minutes and some life, because we’re going to need them. We’re definitely going to need those guys, and my older guys need a rest.”