Feast Week promised to shed some light on just where Seton Hall basketball stood after a 4-0 start.
The answer, after Thursday’s 71-63 loss to 23rd-ranked USC in the Rady Children’s Invitational semifinals: The Pirates have some work to do.
Senior guard Kadary Richmond posted 18 points and 6 boards and senior wing Dre Davis scored 15 points as they dropped to 4-1 on the young season. They’ll face Iowa (3-2) in the third-place game Friday at 6 p.m.
3 THOUGHTS
1. Showed some fight
Against a team of USC’s obvious talent, cutting a 20-point second-half deficit to three required moxie. USC took the physicality to the Hall in the first 25 minutes. It was a gut-check moment – what kind of grit does this team have? – and the Pirates responded well. Not well enough to win, but well enough to build off of this.
2. Frontcourt depth an issue
Seton Hall stood toe to toe with USC for the first 7:30, then fell into a hole after postgrad center Jaden Bediako picked up his second foul. Without backup center Elijah Hutchins-Everett (concussion) and freshman forward David Tubek (just cleared to practice after an undisclosed injury), the Pirates got beat up on the boards and went into the half minus-12 in that category. Obviously getting healthy will help, but it’s also clear how important Bediako (10 points, 6 boards in 27 minutes) will be for this squad. He held his own against the Trojans, which bodes well.
3. Need more shooting
USC is a superb defensive team, as evidenced by 13 blocked shots. The Trojans have length, talent and toughness. The Pirates did attack the rim, but that alone wasn’t going to get it done against this foe. Shooting 3-of-16 from 3-point range was a killer. It’s hard for this squad, as presently constituted, to beat an opponent of this caliber when senior guard Al Dawes (2-of-13 from the field) is ice cold.
3 QUOTES
From Shaheen Holloway’s postgame radio interview.
1. On Seton Hall’s backcourt: “You can’t win games when your starting backcourt – and I’m not calling these guys out because I love these guys – but you can’t win games when they shoot 11-for-42…We had one assist in the first half. To me, that’s against the law.”
“(Freshman wing) Isaiah Coleman gave us life. Al just didn’t have it. Isaiah played defense, he played with energy and played hard.”
2. On the frontcourt depth: “Once Jaden got in foul trouble, it hurt us. We missed Elijah. I thought if Elijah could have played we would have been alright. Jaden showed why he’s a leader. Second half he comes back into the game and we outrebounded them. I just wish we had more time.”
3. On the officiating: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen free throws like this. They went to the line 27 times, we went to the line 12. And we were driving the basketball, so it’s not like we were settling for threes. But it is what it is. Give (USC) a lot of credit; they did a good job. I wish we had legs. If we had legs, I thought it would be different.”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at [email protected].