After showing shades of his individual capabilities on the floor in the first half of Sunday night's loss to Providence, Myles Cale blew up for a career-high 30 points against the Georgetown Hoyas.
The senior guard took control of Seton Hall's offense during an off-night for Sandro Mamukelashvili. Cale shot 10-for-16 from the field and scored five of his nine attempted three-point shots on the night. Jared Rhoden also had tied his career-high 26 points against the Hoyas and posted a double-double with 12 rebounds.
Patrick Ewing’s Hoyas shot a sickening 8-36 from the field in the first half, and had eight turnovers. The Pirates suffocated Georgetown's offensive flow with Ike Obiagu making seven blocks in the first half and Tyrese Samuel contirbuting well in the backcourt with three rebounds and a block.
Despite a slow start to the game, the Pirates grew into things once Cale and Rhoden started finding their feet. They each combined for all but eight of the Pirates' 45 first-half points. On top of shooting well from the field on the night, both players combined for eight made free throws from eight attempts from the line.
Cale opened the second half making three consecutive three-point shots. Rhoden's own three-point basket ensured the Pirates opened the half with four consecutive three-point shots made as they continued to pull away from a defensively sloppy Hoyas team.
Meanwhile, while only scoring four points, Ike Obiagu had his best game as a Pirate as he totaled nine blocks and nine rebounds on the day, which is exactly what head coach Kevin Willard envisioned when they landed his transfer from Florida State.
The Hoyas finished the game with a sorry 34.3% shooting and 14 turnovers as their offense was stumped by the Pirates’ quick defense.
“Every game I try to do everything I can to help my team win," Cale said. "I just had the hot hand early today and my teammates did a good job and just kept feeding me.”
He was also asked about Mamukelashvili’s lack of involvement in the offense and he just attributed it to the fact that teams are adjusting their defenses to him because they know how dominant he can be. However, Willard credited it to something else.
“I just think he was a little burnt out,” Willard said. “He’s been the best player that I’ve seen in college basketball and tonight was just the fact that he had two teammates that were rolling and he kind of just let them roll. It just shows his level of unselfishness.”
The Pirates now have seven days off before they take on Xavier in Cintas Center.
Brendan Balsamo can be reach at brendan.balsamo@student.shu.edu. Follow him on Twitter @brenbal.
