Seton Hall 70, Butler 65: Ray Floriani's Tempo-Free Analysis

Seton Hall cheerleaders root on the Pirates during their 70-65 win over Butler. (Photo courtesy of Ray Floriani)

South Orange, NJ ­- It wasn’t a virtuoso performance, but it went in the books as a win. Seton Hall defeated Butler 70-­65 at Walsh Gym on Tuesday. The pace/efficiency numbers:

Possessions: Butler 75, Seton Hall 73

Offensive Efficiency: Seton Hall 96, Butler 87

The Four Factors:

eFG%: Butler 42, Seton Hall 41

FT Rate: Seton Hall 45, Butler 30

OREB%: Butler 37, Seton Hall 29

TO Rate: Butler 25, Seton Hall 12

What Seton Hall did well: Turn Butler over and care for the ball. Much like Sunday’s win over Georgia, the Hall forced turnovers (19 by the Bulldogs) while committing only 9 of their own. Once again, the Seton Hall offense was aided by a 23-­9 advantage in points off turnovers.

What Butler did well: Compete. It cannot be measured in a number how the Bulldogs stayed with it and basically kept this a two-possession affair for almost the entire game. In the numbers, the Bulldogs enjoyed an offensive rebounding percentage edge and outrebounded the Hall 50­-41 for the rebounding totals.

Scoring Leaders:

Daisha Simmons, Seton Hall 19 points, 23 efficiency
Loryn Goodwin, Butler 20 points, 18 efficiency

Daisha Simmons added seven steals and five rebounds to her point production. Goodwin was impressive, but her 5-of-20 from the field hurt the efficiency. The Butler sophomore guard did add 10 rebounds.

The Butler efficiency leader was Ijeoma Uchendu with 23. The 6-­1 senior had a game high 20 rebounds (6 offensive). Janee Johnson of Seton Hall checked in with an efficiency of 20, largely due to 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 8 boards.

Seton Hall, with a big game Friday night at St. John’s, is 13­-1. Butler came in winners in three of the last four, however the Bulldogs fell to 4­-9.

“This was a ‘trap’ game in a sense, but we did not overlook Butler. They beat us twice last year. They are well coached, ran their sets and had good preparation.” – Seton Hall coach Tony Bozzella