4 Thoughts: Seton Hall takes care of business, beats Georgetown

Dre Davis (14)’ career-high 25 points and 10 rebounds helped Seton Hall stave off Georgetown Wednesday. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, N.J. — With the Seton Hall Pirates sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble, they came off a bye week with a healthy Kadary Richmond into a matchup with the Georgetown Hoyas needing to hold serve at home and avoid a crushing bad loss. 

The Hoyas hung around for the entire game, never letting the Pirates run away with it, but also never leading in a 76-70 loss to The Hall at Prudential Center. With the win, Seton Hall improved to 15-8 overall, and 8-4 in the Big East.

Here are the Thoughts from Newark:

1. Dominant Dre

Dre Davis could not be stopped tonight. He scored 15 points with four rebounds in the first half alone, and finished with a career-high 25 points and 10 rebounds for his second-straight and second-career double-double on 11-for-19 shooting. He was effective from everywhere on the floor with some tough drives inside, some great cuts for layups, and even an outside jumper or two.

“It's always easy when you have teammates that put you in a good position,” Davis said after the game. “I think that's what happened tonight. They kept putting me in good positions to be me and be successful.” 

In a season with a lot of ups and downs for the Pirates (and for everyone, really…it's the nature of the sport), Davis has been steady as a rock. Tonight was his 13th straight game in double figures for the Pirates, and while he won't be mistaken for someone who can go out and have this kind of game every night, when he can fill up the scoring column, it helps the Pirates even more to have that tough presence on the wing.

“I think it's a credit to the work he's put in every day,” head coach Shaheen Holloway said. “He's one of those guys that's an everyday guy. He's been an everyday guy since he's been here. Last year, he had some knee stuff. This year, he's taken care of his body. He's been our workhorse, and everything he does, we need it." 

“It means a lot,” Holloway added about Davis' increased scoring the last couple games. “I felt like there were a couple games where teams were trying to take him away. We worked on some things in practice to try and free him up a little bit. Dre carried us today, but he had a good week in practice, too.” 

2. Supreme Kooks

This game was a homecoming for Georgetown forward Supreme Cook. From nearby East Orange, Cook started his career at Fairfield before transferring to the Hoyas this year (essentially the Ed Cooley route, minus Providence and the ugly exit). Cook had a huge game with 20 points and 11 rebounds on 8-for-13 shooting in front of what I'm sure was a large group of family and friends.

But his 4-for-10 showing at the charity stripe hurt Georgetown, who only had two other attempts at the free throw line as a team. By contrast, Kadary Richmond was able to make a living at the line for the Pirates. After getting into some foul trouble early in the second half, once he got back in, he was able to use his quickness to get to the hole and draw contact, and despite going 0-for-3 from the field, knocked down 11 of 12 free throw attempts.

Kooks ended up with a fantastic line of 20 points, seven rebounds, and eight assists against just three turnovers, including three helpers and no turnovers in the second half and a whopping 10 fouls drawn on his own, playing a big role in helping Seton Hall ward off a tough challenge from a struggling Georgetown team.

Hoyas head coach Ed Cooley praised Cook for how he played, but also gave love to Richmond in the postgame presser. 

“With his size and his ability to get in the lane, he's one of the players that’s not talked about enough in the country in my eyes,” Cooley said. “He's versatile, he's tough, he's just got a good feel. He's got some Dennis Johnson in him. He's just a tough matchup.” 

3. Effective Elijah

One of the unsung heroes tonight for the Pirates was Elijah Hutchins-Everett. On a night where Cook had a great game, and starter Jaden Bediako only played 14 minutes due to foul trouble, the junior center scored nine points, pulled down seven rebounds, and provided some needed presence in the paint. 

He also stepped out and showed off the range with a three-pointer, part of back-to-back three-point plays that was one of several stabilization points for the Pirates as they held their lead in the second half.

He was not unsung to Richmond, though.

“It just shows how they battle each other in practice every day,” Richmond said about Hutchins-Everett and Bediako. “It prepares them for nights like this. When one is off, the other one comes in and there's not a drop off.”

4. TCB

As we said before, Seton Hall is squarely on the bubble at this point, and after the Pirates’ win tonight, they have four home games remaining against Xavier, Butler, Villanova and DePaul, along with road contests at Villanova, St. John's, UConn and Creighton. Assuming losses in the latter two contests against their two toughest remaining opponents away from Newark, it would stand to reason that if the Pirates can win their home games, and find a way to pick off either Villanova or St. John's on the road, that would be a successful formula for an NCAA Tournament bid.

In a league as tough as the Big East, it would be awfully hard to leave a team with 20 wins before Championship Week out of the Big Dance. It has been done before, but it's very, very rare, and with the teams that the Pirates have beaten, they're in good shape. They have to avoid the dreaded bad loss, however, and tonight was one of two remaining games on their schedule (along with their regular season finale against the Blue Demons on March 9) that they absolutely had to win.

So, close game aside, they did what they had to do. Their next game against a struggling Villanova team on Super Bowl Sunday is a fascinating one. It's a game that I think Seton Hall can win, especially with the Wildcats having hit a skid in conference play. In the march to March, you always take it one game at a time, and so we'll see what transpires for the Pirates in the City of Brotherly Love that has been decidedly unbrotherly to them over the last two decades.