5 Thoughts: Seton Hall out-toughs St. John’s

Al-Amir Dawes’ 19 points led Seton Hall as Pirates came back from 19-point deficit to complete season sweep of St. John’s. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

ELMONT, N.Y. — Given that Seton Hall ran St. John’s off the Prudential Center court with a 28-0 run in the first meeting of the season between the two teams, the rematch at UBS Arena would feature a spirited effort by the home team to exact a measure of revenge.

The spirited effort was there, and the crowd was, too, but after falling behind by a whopping 19 points in the first half, Seton Hall turned the defense and toughness up to 12, and simply took the game away by a final score of 68-62. It was an absolutely huge game for the bubble-dwelling Pirates, a fifth Quad 1 win that will most certainly help their at-large chances. 

Here are the Thoughts:

1. Moored on a Deserted Island

Seton Hall began this game similar to the game against Villanova a week ago. Turnovers abounded, and St. John’s capitalized on them to leap out to a big lead. Without Jaden Bediako and his seven early points along with four rebounds, the Pirates might have found themselves out of the game completely. Joel Soriano (11 points), Jordan Dingle (nine points) and ringleader Daniss Jenkins (eight points) all stepped up big in the first 20 minutes.

The lead was 33-19 when Shaheen Holloway picked up a technical foul after a Kadary Richmond offensive foul. After Nahiem Alleyne made the two foul shots, Zuby Ejiofor made a layup to push the margin to 38-19 with 3:09 remaining in the first half.

And that's when everything changed.

“I thought in the first half, we kind of — I’m not sure what was going on,” Holloway said. “They were scoring off our turnovers. We had like, six turnovers and I think they jumped on us. And then once we settled down and I was able to get their attention with the tech, I thought after that, the game turned around for us.”

2. Pirates of the Cross Island Parkway

In the short term after the lead became 19 points, Seton Hall stabilized things in the form of four straight points from Dre Davis (more on him later). It kickstarted a 10-3 run to close the half and cut the deficit to 12 points. Rick Pitino even used a timeout after the Davis points to try and stem the tide.

But it was for naught, because from there on out, Seton Hall was the tougher team, and in the second half, held the Red Storm to just three points in the first eight minutes and 42 seconds (on a quick-release Sean Conway three over a defender). They took Soriano completely out of the game, and made things generally difficult for whoever tried to score. The Pirates then matriculated back into the contest, got it tied, then got the lead, and all the while, they did not let up on defense.

There was even a point where St. John’s almost turned the momentum back in its favor when the Johnnies ambushed Kadary Richmond on a screen, RJ Luis saved the loose ball on a dive near midcourt, and Jenkins hit a layup to tie the game at 50-50. 

But Seton Hall kept on Seton Hall-ing, and simply took the win away from the Red Storm, deflating a crowd of 9,584 that represented the best at the off-campus facility of the season for the home team.

3. Dawes Defends Daniss and Dominates

Al-Amir Dawes led the Pirates with 19 points in this game, knocking down a trio of threes after a slow start, including a big one shortly after the aforementioned hustle sequence for St. John’s in the second half. His off games are becoming more infrequent as the season goes along, and his on games remain incredibly impactful playing next to Richmond.

But he's also got an Energizer Bunny motor, and is routinely asked to defend quick guards. Jenkins is the perimeter engine that makes St. John’s go, and he had a solid first half as we mentioned. The numbers may not suggest it in the box score (he finished with 17 points on 7-for-16 shooting when all was said and done), but Dawes was in his shorts nearly the entire second half. In fact, the only points he scored that I can recall were when he shook free from Dawes on ball screens in the halfcourt or on transition opportunities.

I asked both Dawes and Holloway if they think his defense goes overlooked in favor of his shooting prowess. The former deferred to his teammates.

“I don't really pay attention to that,” Dawes said. “I just focus on what I can do and what the team can do as a whole. We take that approach as a defensive team first.”

“I don’t want to take nothing away from Al, but it was team defense, right?” Holloway said. “I think Al, I’m asking him to do a lot for us. I’m asking him to score for us, I’m asking him to play defense, to guard the better guards — and there’s great guards in this league — so for him to go out there and take that challenge, it’s good. But every night, he’s guarding a great guard in this league.”

Dawes had help, as the coach and Dawes himself said. But individually, he made Jenkins’ night really difficult, and St. John’s night difficult as a result. As for the Pirates’ team defense being superior in the second stanza, it boils down to the toughness factor.

4. Tough As Nails

There are two other Pirates I'd like to highlight here. First is Dre Davis. After missing the second half against Xavier on Wednesday, the rock-steady senior didn't even practice or get on the court at all until tonight, when he replaced starter David Tubek quickly, and proved himself as possessing a strong constitution indeed.

“I’ll tell you what: The last time Dre was on the court was the first half on Wednesday,” Holloway said. “He didn’t practice Thursday, Friday or yesterday. I didn’t know what he could do. He came to me before the game and he was like, ‘I want to give it a try.’ I’m a knucklehead. I played him 34 minutes, but we needed this game. We need every game. And I kept asking him if he was good, but to answer your question, shoutout to him. He’s been like that for us the whole year. He’s been our backbone.”

“A lot of guys aren't trying to get out there if their pinky hurts,” Dawes said of his classmate. “It shows his will for the game, and the love for the game he has. I appreciate Dre.”

Davis finished with 15 points and seven rebounds in the game, and while he only shot 4-for-10 in the game, he went 7-for-9 at the free throw line on a night where the Pirates faltered as a team, drawing six total fouls, which were second-most on the team to Richmond's nine.

Secondly, there's Dylan Addae-Wusu. In his first game against his former school, the Bronx native impacted the game offensively, scoring 16 points in Seton Hall's win. Tonight, he had only six, but boy, was he defensively fantastic. He grabbed six rebounds, got three steals, and even blocked a three-point shot, posting a team-high plus-14 rating in the process.

Those are all things that St. John’s could have used tonight, and it was telling that Pitino simultaneously praised Seton Hall’s toughness in his postgame press conference while bluntly considering his team deficient in that department.

“We just lack toughness,” the Hall of Famer said of his team. “We don't move our feet on defense. They shot 37 free throws. Throw out the (other) stats. You see it every game the amount of free throws they shoot and the amount of free throws we shoot. Look at what Nahiem (Alleyne)’s shot on the year, look at what Chris Ledlum’s shot on the year. You’re a power forward and you play 29 minutes without a free throw. That means you’re not offensive rebounding, you’re not getting to the line. So it's really all the toughness things (as to) why we give up leads.

So, what of the former Johnnie in particular?

“(Addae-Wusu) is much better here right now,” Pitino said. “He had six points, he was 2-for-9 from the field, 0-of-3 from three, 2-of-3 from the line, but he's a perfect fit for what they do.”

And what the Pirates do is out-tough teams on a regular basis. To borrow an oft-quoted line from a long-ago Pitino press conference, if the Johnnies want to get tougher, Dylan Addae-Wusu isn't walking through that door.

5. Bracket Booster

Brad Wachtel, the terrific bracketologist, had this to say immediately after the game:

What an impressive comeback and win by Seton Hall. The Pirates improve to 5-5 Q1 which is very good for a bubble team.

If Seton Hall wins out at home they’ll be in the NCAA tournament. Think they can still get in by winning 2 of 3 at home, while avoiding a loss to DePaul.

— Brad Wachtel (@Brad_Wachtel) February 19, 2024

One of the reasons why the Villanova loss was so disappointing for the Pirates is that it was, on paper, one of the two more-winnable Quad 1 victories left on their schedule. This game was the other one, and in the first 15 minutes, it looked like Seton Hall would again make things tough on itself by forcing itself to either go to Creighton or top-ranked UConn and find a win, or take charge at the Big East tournament, all while avoiding a bad loss.

Now that the Pirates made this comeback and swept the regular season series from St. John's, they've bought themselves a little breathing room. There were only 17 teams coming into today in the entire nation with five Quad 1 wins, and Seton Hall has now joined that group. The fact that it was a direct result of them imposing their DNA on the game and storming back like they did should make any Pirates fan smile.