Where does Seton Hall go after Rutgers buzzer-beater?

Garwey Dual (33) and Dylan Harper (2) watch as Harper’s eventual game-winning three goes in at buzzer, sending Rutgers to victory and Seton Hall to another heartbreaking loss. (Photo by Rutgers Athletics)

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — On one side, it was a moment that will live forever.

For the other, it was the latest punch in the gut to conclude a non-conference season full of them. On that same side, amid the numerous missteps and an uncharacteristic sub-.500 record, it was the coup de grace of a seven-minute stretch where a litany of mistakes erased a 10-point lead and left Shaheen Holloway somewhat perplexed to add to his usual dejection after a loss.

“I’m not sure what was going on,” the Seton Hall coach assessed of the conclusion to the latest chapter of the Pirates’ intrastate rivalry with Rutgers, one that ended on a Dylan Harper 3-pointer at the buzzer. “For seven minutes, we kind of lost our mind.”

While Harper took the game over in the second half as both teams struggled to make free throws and string together a consistent rhythm offensively, Seton Hall still managed to fend Rutgers off by and large. Even as the Scarlet Knights retook the lead, the Pirates fought back to tie the score as both Harper and fellow wunderkind Ace Bailey each missed a pair of critical free throws in the final seconds. The comeback proved in vain, as the same issues that plagued The Hall in losses to Fordham, Hofstra and Monmouth once again manifested Saturday.

“It’s us,” a candid Holloway said. “We just kind of self-destruct, we stop running offense. We stopped doing what we were doing to give us the lead, which was sharing the basketball and making plays.”

Before the ill-fated final stretch, Seton Hall built a 41-31 advantage and squeezed as much juice as possible out of a capacity crowd at the RAC, hoping to thwart Rutgers’ bid to win consecutive games against the Pirates for the first time since 2013. Instead, Harper’s heroics offered an alternative ending to what those clad in blue had envisioned. But despite a 5-6 record heading into Tuesday’s Big East opener at Villanova, Seton Hall’s most recent opponent believes better days are on the horizon.

“Sha does an excellent job,” Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell said, praising the Pirates by calling them “tough as nails.” “They’ve got good length and athleticism, and the way they rebound the basketball, the way they steal it and hold the ball, they play at a different pace.”

“They play great defense,” Harper echoed. “Coach Sha does a great job of getting his guys in gaps like that, playing team defense. He does a great job emphasizing defense. That’s how they’re gonna win games, so props to him. They’ve got some very good players.”

Never one to mince words, especially after the emotion of a bitter defeat, Holloway—as he usually does—wore his heart on his sleeve in his postgame press conference, but did concede that the majority of Saturday’s contest fell more in line with what he envisioned for a team he was still trying to get to know.

“Everybody that’s part of the program should feel this sting,” he intimated. “Then tomorrow, we gotta get back to work, plain and simple.”

Part of that includes rehabilitating guards like Chaunce Jenkins, who battled a knee injury last week against Oklahoma State and is still working his way back into top form, while also continuing to develop Emmanuel Okorafor as the starting center. Isaiah Coleman again showed promise as the go-to guy when the Pirates need him, but just a sophomore, he is still one of the several underclassmen that is rising up to give his coach a glimmer of hope heading into the arduous Big East slate.

“We gotta grow quickly,” Holloway said. “We’ve got a lot of older guys, but we’ve got a lot of guys that didn’t really play that much, even on teams they were on last year. So we’re asking those guys to step up, and I’m proud of my guys.”

“This is how I want us to play. This is how I thought we were gonna play, and this is how we have to play for the rest of the year. (When) you play like this, you give yourself a chance, and you’ve just gotta make plays down the stretch.”