Prudential Center—Shaheen Holloway been preaching about starting games slowly and with low energy, the Pirates came out a little flat in the first half but put all together in the first half to quiet the Huskies.
Kadary Richmond scored 23 points to lead the Seton Hall Pirates (8-4) in a 75-60 win over No. 5 UConn (10-2) Wednesday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey in front of announced crowd 9,441.
“I told my guys, this is a different season,” Holloway said. “This is part two.”
Seton Hall went 1-1 against UConn last season with the Hall coming away with a 67-66 win at the Prudential Center.
The Pirates are 82-63 all-time against Big East competition at the Rock.
The Huskies had a 24-game non-conference winning streak of all wins coming by double-digits snapped in a four-point setback at Kansas on December 1. That streak was the longest streak in NCAA history.
UConn started fast and they opened up with a 10-2 lead but Seton Hall slowly regained their composure and scored two buckets in a row to inch the score to 10-6. At the 5:55 mark the Huskies upped the lead to four with a 22-18 advantage. Donovan Clingan led the way with 8 points but left the game shortly after that with a ankle injury.
The Pirates were relentless with their pace and they were able to convert a few buckets by pushing the ball sixty feet within a blink of an eye. Kadary Richmond and Dre Davis got it going in the last two minutes of the half, the Hall took a 32-27 lead at the 1:31 mark and took a 34-29 advantage going into the locker room.
Seton Hall shot 50.0% (15-0) from the field and 33.3% (1-3) from beyond. Richmond and Davis lead the both scoring 9 points to end the frame.
In the second half, Seton Hall pressured the ball and at the 15:49 mark Seton went by six 41-35 and was playing with a lot swag and confidence. The Pirates kept knocking down shots and went up 61-48 with 6:24 left in the game.
The Pirates had a 10-3 run that went over four minutes and was capped off with a rim rocker dunk by Davis which made it 68-51 Hall and they cruised the rest of the way.
“Credit to Shaheen and credit to Seton Hall,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “They punked us in Big East fashion.”
UConn turned the ball over 17 times which turned into 18 fast break points.
Dre Davis poured in 17 points along with 5 boards.
The win was Seton Hall’s first win over a top five team since its 67-65 win at No. 4 Michigan on Nov. 16, 2021.
The last time the Pirates beat a top five Big East team at the Prudential came against Xavier on Feb. 28, 2016.
“I coached bad, I prepared the team bad. Everybody on the team, minus Donovan on offense, had a bad game,” Hurley said. “(Thursday’s) going to be brutal. The video session is going to be crushing. Because whatever the players think happened out there, when they see the film, it doesn’t lie. Some of the 1-on-1 things, as soft as we were.”
Up Next:
Seton Hall will play Xavier away on Dec 23rd for a 2:00 PM start time on FS1.
UConn will be home to play St. John’s at the XL Center for a 8:00 PM start time on Fox.
