5 Thoughts: Seton Hall loses lead in loss to Providence

Al-Amir Dawes set new career high with 26 points, but effort was not enough as Seton Hall fell to Providence with Kadary Richmond out of lineup Wednesday. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, N.J. — When word came down shortly before tipoff that Big East Player of the Year candidate Kadary Richmond would be out for Seton Hall's game against Providence at Prudential Center Wednesday night, most Pirate fans probably got instantly worried. 

Richmond was banged up in The Hall's triple-overtime loss to Creighton, in which he recorded the second triple-double in program history, but it had been three whole days since then.

Nevertheless, the school motto is Hazard Zet Forward for a reason, and Seton Hall pushed on without its star guard. And for the first 28 minutes, The Hall used an amped-up defensive effort to take a 10-point lead in the second half. 

But down the stretch, the Pirates faded, falling to the Friars, 67-63, to suffer their second straight Big East loss at home.

Here are the 5 Thoughts:

1. Kooks

First up, an update on Richmond from the head coach:

“He’s got some soreness going on with his body,” Shaheen Holloway said. “I found out he wasn’t going to play at the shootaround. I don’t know the timetable, I don’t know too much (but), he’s got some soreness going on.”

Given how important Richmond is to the team and how important he knows he is to the team, we're probably not talking about the soreness you feel when you or I get up on the wrong side of the bed in the morning. Thankfully, it doesn't seem that there's anything seriously wrong (Richmond didn't have any signs of such on the bench, no boot/bandages, no limp, etc.), so here's hoping the Pirates can have their linchpin back when they go to Milwaukee this weekend.

2. Gritball

It felt more like a street fight than a basketball game for 40 minutes at Prudential Center on Wednesday between longtime Big East rivals Seton Hall and Providence. In the first half especially, neither team was willing to give an inch inside the paint, and at the halftime break, the two teams had combined to shoot 38 percent from deep (8-for-18), but only 32 percent inside the arc (14-for-43), with the Pirates shooting only 25 percent from two-point range with several missed layups, albeit highly contested ones.

It was yet another instance of Seton Hall playing to its identity, forged in iron by Holloway, and one it really needed to adhere to against a Providence team that also brings a lot of toughness to the table in order to have success. And for a while, it looked like it would carry the day, but as it so often happens in this sport, defense without some made shots on the other end won't hold up for long.

3. A Step-Up and A Stumble

Going into a conference game without your alpha dog and one of the best half-court creators in the league isn't something any team wants to go through. With Richmond absent, the Pirates had to trust they would be able to get production from their other top players. 

Al-Amir Dawes delivered in every sense of the word. The Newark native, tasked with being the primary ball handler in the game rather than the secondary one, scored a career-high 26 points in the game, and after banging knees with a Providence defender and limping off the court at the end of the first half, erupted in the second half to lead the Pirates out to a 51-41 lead at the under-12 media timeout. 

He did so while hitting almost every shot he took, and some from tough angles. He missed his last four shot attempts, but major props go out to Dawes tonight for his all-around play.

“Al's a basketball player,” Holloway said after the game. “He played point guard in high school, he's been playmaking for us (this year). I thought he did a solid job. I thought he got a little tight down the stretch, but when you've got guys like (Devin) Carter and (Jayden) Pierre guarding you the whole game, those are two good defenders, physical defenders, and I thought they wore him down a little bit.”

On the flip side, it was the roughest of nights for Dylan Addae-Wusu, who was held scoreless on a remarkable 0-for-13 shooting in the game. If even a couple of those baskets go down, it's a much different game story. He brought his usual defense, and added 10 rebounds, but his donut is what stands out in a box score that otherwise indicates Seton Hall should have won the game.

“It's really hard when you've got two of your top main guys (struggling),” Holloway said. “I thought (Dylan) played hard as heck, he had 10 rebounds, but I need him to score the basketball. He goes 0-for-13, Dre (Davis) goes 4-for-11. Those are two of our main guys that we need to score.”

“But even with all that, we were up 10,” he added. “We got out-of-sync quick and stopped running our offense, tried to go one-on-one against a good defensive team, and it didn't work."

4. The Turnaround

Now to what Holloway just alluded to: In the first half, the Pirates were able to buy increasingly more valuable rest for the starters, with substitutions like Elijah Hutchins-Everett, Malachi Brown, and even David Tubek seeing some time. It worked out pretty well, as Seton Hall was able to keep the Friars close, and eventually take a one-point lead at the break.

In the second half, when the Pirates' skipper tried the same, it did not work, and it was the difference in the game.

“We took some main guys out,” Holloway said, “and we stopped running offense. (Providence) made a couple threes, got some runouts, and then once I put the (main) guys back in, we were kind of out of sync.”

One thing led to another, and before you know it, Providence got on a roll, and then turned up its defense even further down the stretch, harassing anything Seton Hall tried to do on offense to keep the Pirates in the out-of-sync zone. The Friars have been without their best player in Bryce Hopkins for a while now, and you have to also give them credit for forging ahead as they did in this game.

5. Odd Box Score

Looking at the box score this evening, Seton Hall had a 39-32 overall rebounding edge, with a pretty astounding total of 20 offensive boards. The Pirates attempted 16 more shots than the Friars in the game, scored 21 points off 14 Providence turnovers (with a 21-9 edge in that category), and had a 15-8 margin in second-chance points.

And yet, because the Pirates didn't make enough of those extra shots, they lost the game. Seton Hall actually finished with one fewer basket made tonight than Providence to come away with the win despite all of the above. Sports can be funny sometimes. A basketball team that has that kind of a box score likely wins that game 98 percent of the time.

Bonus Thought: The Streak Lives

One of the subplots coming into tonight was that Providence had yet to lose a single game that Seton Hall alum and Fox Sports announcer John Fanta had called, going 21-0 with him courtside. Seton Hall fans will remember the legendary streak of former Fox play-by-player Brian Custer, who called 26 straight Pirates wins prior to and then into the pandemic.

The latter streak came to an end in Newark when The Hall lost to (ironically) Providence in December of 2020, and so it would have been mighty interesting to see the Custer Streak's successor also end with the same matchup on the court. Alas, it was not to be, and “Fanta's Friars” remain unbeaten at 22-0.