Seton Hall’s transition game steals win for Pirates against St. John’s

By Ray Floriani (@rfloriani)

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — There are times in studying the course or the why of a game that one thing jumps right out at you. In this case, it was points off turnovers.

Seton Hall 25, St. John’s 2. Case closed.

The Pirates scored a 57-48 victory over St. John’s Saturday at a sold-out Walsh Gymnasium. The win saw

Seton Hall improve to 14-5, and 6-2 in the Big East, while the Red Storm dropped to 11-9 (1-8).

“I thought we competed,” St. John’s coach Joe Tartamella said. “But you are not going to win a lot of games when you give up 25 points off turnovers. You’ve got to be really good on the road and I thought we gave away too many opportunities.”

Seton Hall established a seven-point lead late in the first half. St. John’s then went on a 7-0 run the final 90 seconds to tie the contest at 24 and gain some momentum. In the third period, the Red Storm was able to build a nine-point lead. Jada Eads and Savannah Catalon drained three-pointers for Seton Hall. Eads was then fouled on an attempted layup in transition. The freshman guard canned both free throws, cutting the deficit to one. Lashae Dwyer of St. John’s, closely guarded, hit a buzzer-beating shot from close range to give the visitors a 41-38 lead after three.

The final period was all Seton Hall. The Pirates dominated, outscoring the Red Storm by a 16-4 margin over the initial nine minutes and holding the visitors to just seven fourth-period points.

“I thought our defense was really the difference in

this game,” Seton Hall coach Tony Bozzella commented. “We went into the fourth quarter and really buckled down.”

Forcing turnovers was a priority in the Pirate game plan.

“We had to win that and points in the paint,” Bozzella said. “We were close (St. John’s had a 24-22 edge in points in the paint), but we were able to overcome a really poor shooting day.”

For the game, the Pirates shot 39 percent from the field

including 4-of-20 from three. St. John’s checked in at 40 percent, and 27 from long distance.

“I think both teams struggled to score,” Tartamella said. “We gave them offensive looks and I thought we had good looks, but the ones that were good, we missed. I thought we played really well in spurts, and didn’t have enough at the end. Unfortunately, that’s been the story in a few of our games.”

Points of Emphasis:

Leaders: Ber’Nyah Mayo of St. John’s led all scorers with 18 points. Seton Hall placed three in double figures. Faith Masonius scored 16 points, while Savannah Catalon and Jada Eads had 12 and 11, respectively. Lashae Dwyer, St. John’s leading scorer at 13.5 points per game, was held to eight points.

“We’re still trying to figure out ways of getting her going,” Tartamella said of the senior guard. “I would like to see her shoot a little more, but she played hard.”

St. John’s held a 37-27 advantage off the glass. Phoenix Gedeon and Dwyer led the Red Storm with eight each. Masonius paced Seton Hall with eight as well.

St. John’s was guilty of 23 turnovers, an excessively high 31 percent turnover rate. Seton Hall had 12 miscues for a 17 percent rate.

Difficult start: Picked fourth in the Big East preseason poll in October, St. John’s sits near the bottom of the pack to date. The only conference win for the Red Storm has come over Xavier, who is also 1-8 in conference play. Despite the rough early going that has seen four losses by three possessions or less, the Red Storm remains focused.

“They are a very resilient group,” Tartamella said. “It’s certainly not easy when you’re not winning, but they will get back to practice, go about their work and get ready for Wednesday (against Providence).”

Host of contributors: A number of players, some in relief, stepped up and helped get the Pirates in the win

column. Seton Hall sophomore guard Savannah Catalon, a 12-point scorer, was praised by Bozzella for more than point production.

“She drew eight fouls, I think four or five charges,” Bozzella said. “She’s a special kid.”

Bozzella also singled out Messiah Hunter for helping out against the St. John’s press. Hunter, a junior forward, scored just two points, but was another player with a value beyond the box score.

“She was a plus-9 for 11 minutes,” Bozzella praised. “Without her, we don’t win the game.”

Kayde Lawson, who hit a “big-time three that changed everything,” and Kaitlyn Carrick who didn’t play a minute, received well-deserved praise from Bozzella. An assistant athletic trainer at Seton Hall, Carrick was instrumental in helping Catalon recover from a recent injury.

“She did an amazing job,” Bozzella said. “I’m going to give a lot of credit to our trainer, Kaitlyn, and of course, Savannah.”

Notes: In a 66-possession game, Seton Hall showed an 86-73 advantage in offensive efficiency. In the 16-possession fourth period, when Seton Hall outscored St. John’s 19-7, the Pirates held a 119-44 offensive efficiency edge. In fact, the Red Storm had as many turnovers as points those final ten minutes.

It was a homecoming for St. John’s assistant Kaity Healy, a three-time captain during her playing days (2015-19) at Seton Hall. Asked pregame how it felt coming back and coaching against her alma mater, Healy just said, “it feels a little weird.”

The game had a Final Four-caliber officiating crew of Maj Forsberg, Fatou Cissoko-Stephens and Joe Vaszily, who worked Friday’s marquee LSU-South Carolina game.

Both teams are at home for their next Big East matchups. St. John’s hosts Providence at Carnesecca Arena on Wednesday, while Seton Hall entertains Butler at Walsh Gymnasium the same night.