Budd Clark exhorts crowd as Seton Hall fed off his and Tajuan Simpkins’ hot hands to overcome double-digit deficit and topple Xavier. (Photo by Vincent Carchietta/Imagn Images)
After spotting Xavier an 11-2 head start and eventually finding itself in a 22-9 hole, The Hall went to halftime down 11 points. What followed was a turnaround that could very go down as a season-saver if more breaks go the Pirates’ way.
Seton Hall (15-6, 5-5 Big East) outscored the visiting Musketeers by 29 points over the final 20 minutes, turning what looked to be an uninspiring effort before a crowd stymied by navigating the aftermath of last weekend’s winter storm into an 86-68 takedown of Xavier that could be, all things considered, the most impressive win of the season for a Pirate squad that needed it in the worst way after dropping four straight since a January 10 victory at Georgetown.
The late rally and even later commute back across the river gives way to a Thursday morning set of postgame thoughts. Here goes:
1) Second Helping
Seton Hall had two players stand out in particular, combining for 51 of its 86 points, and each will get his own individual takeaway. Before that, though, any mention of Wednesday’s game needs to start with the cannon from which the Pirates shot themselves out of after halftime.
A 23-3 run out of the locker room slammed the door on Xavier’s attempt to leave the Prudential Center with a road victory, as Budd Clark and Tajuan Simpkins tag teamed to lift a struggling offense out of a rut and pair it with the full-court pressure that has become a calling card of sorts under Shaheen Holloway. All told, The Hall outscored Xavier by a commanding 56-27 margin in the final stanza to erase a 41-30 deficit at the intermission, and Holloway’s plea of getting his team to commit the appropriate level of intensity was largely responsible for the reversal of fortune.
“(I’m) just trying to find guys that want to play with energy and defend,” the coach said. “We need everybody. We need a Jacob Dar, we need a Josh (Rivera), who had a good stretch, we need Trey (Parker), who had a good stretch, (Tajuan Simpkins), we need Mike (Williams), who was playing well for us. I make adjustments throughout the game, and with me, it’s not about who starts, it’s about who finishes. And if you’re a basketball player, that’s all you care about, is finishing the game.”
“We just wanted to come out with a sense of urgency, knowing the point we’re at right now,” Clark echoed. “We just wanted to come out with energy. We just gave a lot of energy on the defensive end and that just turned to offense. We honestly don’t like playing from behind, but that’s been a situation at times this month. I’d say we’re very resilient. We’ve been through tough times, we’ve been down a lot this season, but we’re very resilient and we’re gonna fight to the end, and just keep trying to claw back and find ways to win.”
2) RoseBudd
Usually, as Clark goes, so too do the Pirates. And on Wednesday, the Merrimack transfer went at a speed not seen since his tour de force performance in December’s blowout of in-state rival Rutgers.
Clark ended the night with 24 points, seven rebounds, four assists and four steals. The Philadelphian also kick-started a game-ending 12-0 run after Seton Hall started the second half with a 14-0 spurt to pull ahead for the first time Thursday. Per Adam Zielonka of Guarden State, Seton Hall has had 15 runs of 10-0 or more to date this season, while yielding only five to its opposition.
“I want to give a shoutout to my coaches,” Clark said. “They’ve been talking to me all week, they’ve been believing in me, telling me to be myself. And a special shoutout to (assistant coach Rasheen Davis). He just kept telling me, ‘just be myself and have fun doing it.’ I had fun on the defensive end and offensive end, and we came out with the win.”
“I’ve been on Budd Clark and Trey about pushing the basketball,” Holloway added. “(Clark) pushed the basketball and we got a lot of easy baskets because of that. He has to do that. God gave him a gift to be really quick and really fast. Use that to your ability, because if you don’t, we don’t have a dominant big man where you just slow the game down and throw the ball down low. We gotta play quick, we gotta play fast. (Clark’s) gotta push it, he’s gotta get guys running.”
3) Tajuan-derful
The biggest beneficiary of Clark’s all-around game Wednesday was Simpkins. The Elon transfer tied a career-high with 27 points, connecting on five of eight 3-point attempts on a night where he was the only Pirate to convert a long distance call.
“We’ve got a lot of unselfish guys on the team,” Simpkins said of his teammates finding him to ride his hot hand. “If somebody’s hot, they’re just looking for him.”
“I like seeing all my guys make shots and have fun, and just finding ways to win,” Clark proclaimed. “(Simpkins) was the hot hand, so we tried to find him when we were down.”
When the ball goes through the hoop the way it did for Seton Hall Wednesday, the potential is limitless.
“We could be great,” Simpkins elaborated. “We were just nationally recognized a week ago, Top 25, and we just went into this rough stretch. So I just feel like that just shows who we are.”
4) Jacob’s Ladder
One of Holloway’s trademarks wherever he has been has been finding a diamond in the rough and getting him to play above his size and proverbial weight class. At Saint Peter’s, it was the Drame twins, Fousseyni and Hassan. In his first two years at Seton Hall, it became Dre Davis. This season, it could eventually be Jacob Dar in the X-factor role.
The senior wing posted ten points and five rebounds in 22 minutes, and even if Clark and Simpkins commanded most of the attention from those watching Wednesday, it was Dar who was arguably most integral at the end of the first half when the Pirates began to chip away at Xavier’s double-digit lead. Holloway left the Rice transfer on the floor with A.J. Staton-McCray on the bench, and continued to trust him even after missing assignments on defense. Dar responded by setting the table for the second-half spurt that won Seton Hall the game.
“He’s just gotta find his way,” Holloway said. “I keep telling him, just go out there and play with energy. Don’t worry about making mistakes, don’t worry about messing up. Just play with energy, play hard, and hit the offensive glass and slash. You’re a 6’7 slasher, slash and use your size and length to defend. I thought he did that in the second half for us.”
“It was much-needed,” Simpkins said of Dar’s effort. “He was ready when his number was called, played the right way, crashed the glass and did what he was supposed to do. He had a good game.”
5) Ice Tre
Xavier’s Tre Carroll entered Wednesday’s contest averaging 18 points per game. The Florida Atlantic transfer took a streak of three straight 20-point games into battle against Seton Hall, including a 31-point masterpiece in a losing effort against St. John’s. Carroll furthered that string Wednesday, doing so before halftime with 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting. But he would finish with that same amount, as Seton Hall shut his water off in the final 20 minutes, allowing the 6-foot-8 mountain of a man to take just three field goal attempts after the intermission, missing each one.
After a quick film study during the break and a reminder to follow the scouting report, the tide turned.
“He’s a hard drive left, and the first couple guys (guarding him), they didn’t listen to the scouting report,” Holloway reflected. “They let him go left and they let him get out there and shoot some threes, and he just was too comfortable. I thought in the second half, we made him play a little faster than he wanted to play, and then we closed the lanes up.”
“The first half, everything was so wide because (Xavier) could shoot. Guys were too wide, they weren’t in the lanes. The second half, we kept it kind of tight and I think that was the difference.”
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