Kadary Richmond recorded triple-double Saturday, just second such occurrence in Seton Hall history, but Pirates fell three points short against Creighton in triple-overtime classic. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
NEWARK, N.J. — Seton Hall came into Saturday’s matchup with 18th-ranked Creighton as perhaps the hottest team in the country, winners of five straight in a stretch that saw the Pirates snatch a pair of victories over ranked teams and dominate one of the better teams in the Big East in St. John’s from pillar to post when the two locked horns this past Tuesday.
The visiting Bluejays flew into the Prudential Center hoping to erase the aftertaste of a deflating loss to top-ranked UConn last Wednesday, one in which Greg McDermott’s high-octane offense was placed into a blender and held to just 48 points by the reigning national champion Huskies.
The opposite trajectories on the hardwood combined to produce what could very well be the leader in the clubhouse for game of the year in college basketball this season.
In a tug of war that required three extra periods to decide it, the Big East’s westernmost team did just enough to squeak by its gritty host, as Creighton walked away with a 97-94, triple-overtime triumph over Seton Hall, who was unable to parlay a Kadary Richmond triple-double into a fourth takedown of a Top 25 opponent.
“It was an unbelievable Big East game, two really good teams that both certainly threw some punches,” Greg McDermott remarked after his Bluejays (14-5, 5-3 Big East) needed the star trio of Trey Alexander, Ryan Kalkbrenner and Baylor Scheierman to play all but three minutes and 29 seconds to emerge victorious. “We had every opportunity to win in regulation and the overtimes, then we found a way when it didn’t look so good in the third overtime. We’re lucky that we came out on top. You don’t apologize for winning. It’s hard to do in this league.”
Seton Hall (13-6, 6-2 Big East) got contributions from more than just Richmond, as Dre Davis set the tone in the first half on the way to 21 points and nine rebounds before fouling out in the final moments of the second overtime, while Al-Amir Dawes scored all 21 of his markers after a first half in which the Pirates spotted Creighton a seven-point head start before a three-point play from Jaden Bediako made the margin at the intermission a more manageable 35-31 score that favored the visitors.
The opening stanza was merely a harbinger of things to come, as both sides fought tooth and nail amid a physical game with very few interruptions from the officials, although it could be argued that calls were missed on both sides. Through all of that, Seton Hall was able to overcome the street fight nature of the contest and pull ahead by five early in the third overtime after a Dawes three. The triple would be the last Pirate field goal of the day other than an inconsequential three from Isaiah Coleman, as Creighton used a 14-3 run to seize the moment behind Kalkbrenner and Alexander.
“I feel like we fought to the end,” a dejected Davis assessed. “We gave it all we had, so I’m proud of that, but we just came up short.”
“Overall, I think we did a good job just staying in there,” Dawes added. “Even though this was like, the first time some of our guys have been in situations like this, where there’s three overtimes, we handled it pretty well. We can’t really look down on it too much. We’ve got another crazy game coming up (Wednesday against Providence), we can’t really hang ourselves on it or look at it that much.”
Before the Pirates regroup and welcome Kim English’s Friars to the Rock with a season sweep on the line, we’ll try to make sense of the 55-minute marathon both teams contested today with a super-sized edition of postgame thoughts:
1) Call Me, Maybe?
As mentioned before, both sides can gripe about plays and sequences in the game — particularly the second half and overtime periods — that were ignored by the officials. However, there were three particular instances that went against the Pirates, the first two at the end of regulation.
With 12.2 seconds remaining and Seton Hall clinging to a 67-65 lead after Davis was whistled for a foul, Francisco Farabello appeared to travel before inbounding, but McDermott was granted a timeout. On the ensuing inbounds, Scheierman was saved from what looked like a five-second violation by a second McDermott timeout, giving Creighton a new lease on life. The third time proved to be the proverbial charm for the Bluejays, who tied the game at 67 on a Steven Ashworth layup and withstood a miss by Richmond at the buzzer to force the first overtime.
In the final seconds of the second overtime, Richmond came away with a steal against Farabello, and dished to Dawes for what appeared to be a go-ahead layup that would have put Seton Hall ahead, 84-83. However, a foul was called on Ashworth when no contact appeared to have been made, negating the Dawes basket and sending Richmond to the foul line for a 1-and-1, where he made the first free throw but missed the second. Alexander’s attempt for the win at the other end fell off the mark, necessitating an additional five minutes and leaving Dawes stunned after he admittedly thought he was the hero.
“I thought it was over,” he revealed. “I was pretty excited, which I shouldn’t have been. I should have been just locked in and seeing what was going on. I thought that was the game. I didn’t really feel anything other than that. I didn’t really see if there was a foul or not, I just saw the ball come to me and I laid it up. I thought that we could have had it right then and there.”
Despite coming up three points short, Shaheen Holloway took the setback in stride, not lamenting what could have been, but instead chalking the result up to a litany of minor miscues that collectively felled his roster.
“Not one play lost this game for us,” the Pirate skipper cited. “It’s just little things down the stretch that we definitely gotta clean up. I like the way we played. We lost and I’m super disappointed, but we’re walking out of here with our heads high.”
2) Flying High
Creighton’s game-changing 14-3 run in the final overtime began with two free throws from Scheierman, but was ignited and highlighted by a play that did not show up in the final numbers, a screen set by Kalkbrenner to find Ashworth for a three that pulled the Bluejays to within one, at 89-88, with 1:28 on the clock. An Alexander jumper and triple soon followed to give the visitors the lead for good, but the all-conference center’s awareness was the defining moment in the outburst.
“The play was to get Trey out in space and then have Kalk set a back screen,” Ashworth recalled. “(Seton Hall) denied that and made it tough to catch. Kalk got it and then eventually swung it to Mason (Miller), who swung it to me. I looked at the clock, I had about eight seconds and knew I had to go make a play. When I saw them press up, I knew I could get by and then I saw the help coming over, had to flip it up and over the big.”
“I was just telling the guys — we were down five with three minutes left and I was kind of huddling them up when we got to the free throw line — we have three minutes left to get back into it,” Alexander said of inspiring the game-changing rally. “We knew we could get some stops and get some scores. We came down, Kalk set a great screen for Steven, Steven came off and knocked one down. Then coming back down, we got another stop and then I just knew from that point on that we were going to be able to win this game. We were prepared for these types of moments. We toughed it out, we showed we were the tougher team tonight.”
3) Let Kooks Cook
Richmond’s 21-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist performance is just the second triple-double in program history. Only the late Eddie Griffin recorded the feat in a Seton Hall uniform, doing so in 2000-01, his lone collegiate season before becoming the seventh overall pick in the 2001 NBA Draft.
“He’s a good player,” Dawes modestly said of his backcourt partner. “He’s the type of player that can get that, and he’s talented enough to do that night in and night out. Huge congrats to my guy, he did a good job tonight.”
Holloway downplayed the accolade, partially due to the loss, but more in the wake of focusing on the team effort, yet praised Richmond’s effort as a validation of the work he has continued to put in throughout the year. His counterpart, whose team made Richmond work for it in an 8-for-32 shooting display, credited Creighton’s defense while his primary assignment reflected on the difficulty of guarding the Brooklyn native.
“I’m really proud of the job we did on Kadary Richmond,” said McDermott. “For him to take 32 shots to get 21 points is a credit to our preparation and our defensive effort.”
“When he gets into the paint, he’s hard to stop,” Alexander said of Richmond. “He’s really good at having those bully-ball situations and he played a great game tonight. Obviously, he’s one of the better players in the league and he’s really leaving his mark this year.”
4) Battle of the Bigs
Kalkbrenner’s final line of 28 points, nine rebounds and seven blocked shots will command the lion’s share of the attention, and deservedly so. The seven-footer moves so well without the basketball in his hands to where he draws consistent attention at all times defensively, yet still manages to make his floor game look effortless. Doing so with his frame, and for 53 minutes and 34 seconds Saturday, left his coach astounded at some points, particularly down the stretch.
“I thought he was a difference maker on both ends,” McDermott proclaimed. “We were able to get him on the move some, he was able to finish around the rim and then defensively, he blocked seven of Kadary’s shots and Kadary doesn’t get a lot of his shots blocked. I just thought Ryan was really active on both ends, and to play that many minutes and still be able to make the plays as the game wound down is pretty incredible when you’re 7’1 and 270 pounds.”
While Kalkbrenner’s outing should not be in any way diminished, Bediako did an exceptional job in his assignment against the defending Big East Defensive Player of the Year, amassing 15 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks. The Canadian, who has already squared off against Donovan Clingan, Oso Ighodaro and Joel Soriano this season, now has a fourth all-star big on his resume, and continues to earn the respect of his teammates for his lack of complacency and willingness to give nothing less than his best.
“He works really hard, no matter what,” Davis said of Bediako and his pedigree. “No matter the question or no matter the situation, he’s always gonna go out there and give it his all. That’s what me and the guys like about him, he gives his all no matter what. He leaves it out there.”
5) Now What?
A pivotal game such as this one usually tells everyone more about both sides, and this seems like no exception.
Starting with Seton Hall, the loss — nothing to hang its head upon given the result and effort within — does nothing to diminish what has been a stellar first half of league play to date. Although the Pirates may not be ranked in Monday’s newest Associated Press poll, they will certainly continue to receive votes and more importantly, garner much-valued battle scars that will serve them well in the second half of the Big East season.
“I think it’s a good experience,” Dawes opined. “A lot of teams really don't have to go through that extra 15 minutes. I think it just teaches us how to play in those late-game situations. I feel as though it’ll help us down the road, how to handle it, how to come out with that win. We’ll take our experience from this game so we could come out on top next time.”
When asked if Seton Hall still felt confident of its standing as one of the conference’s best despite the defeat, Davis did not shy away from responding affirmatively, even continuing to play up the underdog mentality he and his teammates thrive upon.
“I feel like we’ve felt that from day one,” he said. “I feel like each and every game we go out there, there’s something we gotta prove to the world. We feel as though we are one of the best teams in the Big East, one of the best teams in the country.”
As for Creighton, the Bluejays emphatically turned the page from Wednesday’s demoralizing affair at Gampel Pavilion, and one of its integral pieces in Saturday’s win believes the successful trip to New Jersey can ultimately be a turning point.
“This could be the start of something special,” Ashworth proposed. “I think we showed a lot of grit tonight, we showed that we can play very tough. Obviously watching UConn film and seeing how they punked us out last time, we showed that we can handle that toughness, really grind some of those games out and be a tough team.”
“It’s what we’re all about. Some instances, you need to prove it to yourself. You believe, but when you see the results, you kind of have a new sense of belief and a new sense of confidence. I think we gained that today.”
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