Prudential Center—Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 28 points and Trey Alexander chipped in 23 to lead No. 18 Creighton (14-5, 5-3) over Seton Hall Pirates (13-6, 5-3) 97-94 in triple OT Saturday afternoon at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey in front of announced crowd 10,481.
With the loss it ended Seton Hall’s five-game winning streak in which they beat two ranked teams No. 23 Providence and then-No. 7 Marquette.
Before the game started senior guard Kadary Richmond was awarded 1000k point ball which he scored that against St. John’s Tuesday night at home.
Seton Hall are now 66-61 all-time in overtime games and 9-9 in overtime games at the Rock.
“You gotta give credit to both teams, man,” Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway said. “I’m very sour right now, but that was a hell of a basketball game. Both teams fought to the end, you can’t ask for much more. You’ve got guys on both sides playing 50-plus minutes, right? It’s unfortunate somebody had to lose. Like I said, I’m sour, but it was a tremendous basketball game.”
At the 2:54 mark the Hall chipped into the lead and was down by one 29-28 anchored by a a few quick baskets by Richmond.
The Pirates switch to a zone defense and started to double team center Ryan Kalbrenner who was giving SHU fits on the blocks which made it uncomfortable down low for him to work. Jaden Bediako picked up the slack in the paint and score the last three points going into the half. The Bluejays had a four point advantage going into the locker room (35-31). Dre Davis had led the Hall with 13 points in that frame.
Seton Hall shot 48.0% (14-29) from the field and 25.0% (1-4) from beyond. Also, Addae-Bediako chipped in 9 points to end the first half.
In the second half, the game went back and forth with a lot of high flying dunks and heart stopping plays in the third over time.
The Bluejays scored six straight points in the second overtime to take a 83-79, but the Pirates wouldn’t go away quietly, scoring the last four points to tie the game at 83 apiece.
A posterize dunk and a bunny from Kalkbrenner gave Creighton a 73-69 lead in the first overtime with 1:07 left in regulation, Davis tied it at 75-75 with 12 ticks on the clock.
Steven Ashworth’s layup tied the game at 67Se in regulation for the Bluejays with three seconds to play.
The Hall had the lead 91-90 in the third over time with 42 seconds on the clock. But, Creighton drained back-breaking three, played lights out on defense and hit two free throws to seal the contest.
“I like the way we played,” Holloway said. “We lost and I’m super disappointed, anybody who knows me knows I’m a competitor, but we’re walking out of here with our heads high.”
In the end, the Pirates couldn’t close the game out. They missed a lot of shots due to senior Dre Davis fouling out at the end of double-OT.
Kadary Richmond had triple-double with 21 points, 11 assists, along with 11 boards, Dre Davis and Al-Amir Dawes both chipped in 21 for the Pirates.
The Bluejays scored 17 points on Hall 9 turnovers for the game. Seton Hall out-rebounded Creighton 56-45 for the contest.
Up Next:
Seton Hall will be home to play Providence Jan 24th for a 6:30 PM start time on FS1.
Creighton will be home to play Xavier on Jan 23rd for a 7:30 PM start time FS1.
