5 Thoughts: Seton Hall bounces back, beats NJIT

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, N.J. — After a bad weekend loss to lowly Monmouth at home, Seton Hall’s third such defeat of the year against a local mid-major, the Pirates needed a pick-me-up, and got one Wednesday night, getting out to a big early lead and then pulling away late for a 67-56 victory against scrappy NJIT at Prudential Center in frigid Newark.

Here are the late-night Thoughts:

1. Where There's A Will, There’s A Garwey

After Saturday’s loss to Monmouth, Seton Hall turned the defense up to 11 right off the jump Wednesday, and made the Highlanders (who came into the game as the second-youngest team in the nation) look awfully young. The Pirates did a nice job bottling up Tariq Francis, the Highlanders’ best player, in the early going, and were able to make six of their first seven shots from the field, turning defense into offense.

The most memorable sequence came courtesy of Garwey Dual grabbing an offensive rebound and driving a clear lane to the hoop for a layup, then stealing the ensuing inbounds pass and laying the ball in again while being fouled for an and-1 that made the score 15-2 at the first media timeout.

“He’s a dawg, too,” Prince Aligbe said of his teammate after the game. “He’s been dealing with injuries in the offseason and early in the season, too, but I know he’s been putting the time in, building himself back up. And defensively, whenever he can make plays on other guards, and hound them, it wears them down in games.”

“For some reason, he wasn’t being aggressive and looking to shoot, and I told him that we need him to shoot,” head coach Shaheen Holloway said of Dual. “He looks to find people, but we’ve been playing 3-on-5 some games because he wasn’t looking to shoot and Godswill (Ehreriene) wasn’t looking to shoot, teams were kind of keying on other guys. But I thought the last few days of me being on him to shoot the basketball, he came out aggressive, and I thought it was good for us.”

Dual’s had an uneven start to his Seton Hall career as Aligbe mentioned, but his length gave the Highlanders problems early and he ended up contributing 10 points to lead the Pirates in the first half, which was already a season-high. He wasn’t on the floor as much in the second half as Holloway opted for a different lineup combination, but he was a big part of the game.

2. Prince Ali(gbe) Ababwa

It’s not often that someone that leads the box score at the end of the night doesn't have a single big, take-over-the-game stretch, but tonight, that was Prince Aligbe. The Boston College transfer poured in a career-high 19 points, and added eight rebounds and three assists in a well-rounded performance. 

It seemed he was a part of every good sequence for the Pirates throughout the night, as he helped break NJIT’s 2-3 zone when the Highlanders went to it, and also was able to get inside for baskets against the undersized Highlanders.

“This is kind of what I envisioned Prince being,” Holloway said. “Obviously 19 points is really good, but him being a double-double guy, or close...get 10-12 points, 7-8 rebounds, assists, defense. He’s had a tough go. Prince is a great person, but he overanalyzes everything. When things happen, or don't happen, (he’s thinking) ‘oh, this is why.’ I thought tonight, he did a good job of just playing through it.”

It goes without saying that Seton Hall could use more of that from him, particularly the ball movement aspect, as Holloway really emphasized that point in his postgame press conference (more on that in a second).

3. #RollTariq

It couldn't have started much worse for the Highlanders and head coach Grant Billmeier, but just like Monmouth on Saturday, they have a player who can absolutely light up the scoreboard in Tariq Francis, and Seton Hall couldn’t keep him down for too long. 

The reigning America East Conference Rookie of the Year came in averaging just shy of 20 points per game this year despite a 1-8 record for NJIT, and showed off his talents by putting up 13 points in the first half, knocking down three triples. And just like Abdi Bashir on Saturday, he was (on paper) the only reason the game was close at halftime, with the Pirates leading by just four points.

“He’s just getting better and better,” Billmeier said after the game. “For a sophomore to come on the road, score 23 points with as much attention (as he got), I talked to him about it yesterday. I said, ‘hey, they’re not going to let you go off. They’re going to make it extremely difficult.’ He stayed with it, he never got frustrated, and he battled the entire game today.”

He ended up with 23 points in the game, but in the second half, he didn’t have much help, as he had 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting, but the rest of the team went just 4-for-15 against the Pirates’ pressure defense. Although NJIT hung around, and even cut its deficit to two at one point, the Highlanders weren’t able to get over the hump as a result.

4. Work In Progress

Holloway was not the least bit happy with the win for his team, however, as he lamented a letdown for the Pirates after the great start to the game.

“I was disappointed in the biggest way,” he said after the contest. “I thought we played a good 15 minutes in the first half, and that was it. We came out with juice, we came out with energy, and then it kind of just dropped. Then we go in the locker room, we win a game, and I’ve got guys worried about them(selves) and not us winning. So that’s something we’ve got to clean up."

Indeed, NJIT closed the first half on a 13-2 run, and it set up a dogfight for a good portion of the second stanza. All year long, the Pirates’ coach has said that his teams tend to start a bit uneven, but they always get better towards the end of the year. He has the resume to back up those claims, and I think his dissatisfaction even after a bounce-back win indicates that the Pirates have a ways to go yet. 

Nevertheless, it was necessary to get a win tonight, and it was good to see Seton Hall come out with that aforementioned juice to build that early lead. The key now will be consistency and sustainability in that effort, particularly if the Pirates can do the same against the higher competition they will be facing from here on out this year, beginning on Sunday against Oklahoma State.

5. Old Friends

Billmeier and Holloway go way back. Both were assistants under Kevin Willard, overlapping for the better part of eight years before the latter got the head job at Saint Peter’s, and Wednesday was a reunion of sorts, with both men having good things to say about one another.

“He’s been a tremendous mentor,” Billmeier said of Holloway. “There’s times when I think I’m about to lose my mind, and I call him, and he talks me off the ledge. For him to come to NJIT last year, and allow people to come into that building and see the beautiful facility we have, for him to allow us to play on their schedule is a tremendous thing.”

“I’m proud of Grant, he’s doing a great job,” Holloway said in return. “His team plays hard for him, they run great stuff. I think he has a bright future in coaching.”

Billmeier also said he thinks it will become an annual meeting between the two schools separated by a short stretch of South Orange Avenue, which would be nice to see. There was a smattering of fans in NJIT red throughout the crowd and a big presence from the Highlanders’ athletic department in the building today. When Billmeier walked out of the tunnel to the court, the Seton Hall fans gave him a hand.

“I think they were happy I wasn’t representing Seton Hall because as a player, they booed me a lot,” Billmeier chuckled. “But honestly, I spent 15 amazing years at Seton Hall. It has a very special place. I’m fully committed to turning around NJIT’s program, but 15 of my 40 years were spent on that campus, and I have a tremendous amount of memories from my time there.”