One game after an upset win over the then No. 9 Pittsburgh Panthers, the Seton Hall Pirates lost a heartbreaker of their own the the University of South Florida Bulls in overtime, 76-74 on Thursday.
This is the Pirates first loss to the Bulls in school history.
On the floor, the Pirates were led by junior Jeremy Hazell who had 28 points. After hitting four of his first seven three point attempts, Hazell could not get his shot going in the second half, finishing the game 9/20, 5/13 from beyond the arc.
The Hall owned the battle of the boards in the game, 37-33, including 17 offensive rebounds. However, the USF made up for their lack of boards in overtime, grabbing two key rebounds in the period.
The Pirates were able to contain junior Dominique Jones for the whole first half, but Jones tore it up in the second half by scoring 28 points in the win.
Junior Jarrid Famous, who was once favored to go to Seton Hall, was held to 15 points in the Bulls win.
For Seton Hall, this is their fifth conference loss. A win would have put the Pirates inside the top six in the conference.
This was the first of three road games for the Pirates. The Pirates continue their road trip against No. 3 Villanova on Feb. 2.
Their is a chance that the Wildcats will be the No. 1 team in the country next week, should Kansas State lose on Satuday. The Hall has never beaten a No. 1 team in school history.
Tim LeCras can be reached at timothy.lecras@student.shu.edu.
