It was a Saturday matinee matchup in Newark as Coach Shaheen Holloway and transfer KC Ndefo were faced with their former team, St. Peter’s University, and looked to improve to 2-0 in the first matchup between the two squads since 2017.
Tyrese Samuel got things started offensively with a putback dunk from his own missed layup on the first possession of the game, which was followed by KC Ndefo’s layup. The Peacocks got into foul trouble early, as they put Seton Hall into the bonus before the 10-minute mark in the first half.
Leading 13-12 with 12:54 left in the half, a Kadary Richmond three-pointer sparked a 21-6 run over the next 10 minutes to build a stable lead. The Pirates’ defense once again showed how good it can be through the duration of the first half, forcing an astounding four shot-clock violations from the Peacocks.
Seton Hall went into the half leading 36-23 on the strength of 9 points from Kadary Richmond and 9 points from Al-Amir Dawes, who also pulled down 4 rebounds in the first half. Tyrese Samuel added 6 points with two powerful dunks, while Tray Jackson and KC Ndefo followed with 4 points and 2 rebounds each. Defensive efforts were prevalent once again with this Pirates team, holding the Peacocks to 34.8% shooting from the field.
The second half opened with another forced shot clock violation from the Hall and led to an Odukale corner triple for the first bucket out of the break. Tyrese Samuel threw down an emphatic lob from Jamir Harris on the fast break, which was followed by another fast break score from Harris in the paint. Dre Davis knocked down two from the charity stripe to extend the lead to 31 and capped a 21-4 run in the second half.
Jackson obliterated the rim with a huge dunk that came with a foul to bring the lead to 41 with 4:39 remaining. This game was all Seton Hall from the jump and shattered the Peacocks’ glass slipper with an 80-44 victory.
Al-Amir Dawes dominated with 13 points, 10 rebounds and a steal along with Dre Davis’s 13 points. Tyrese Samuel scored 12 points on an efficient 5-11 shooting, while Kadary Richmond followed with 9 points on perfect shooting. The Peacocks were held to just 23% shooting in the first half.
The Hall returns to action on Wednesday, November 16th at 7:30 pm when it hosts Iowa for its’ annual Greek Night at the Prudential Center. This matchup is apart of the Gavitt Tipoff, which is a series between the Big Ten and Big East conferences.
Thomas Donnelly can be reached at thomas.donnelly@student.shu.edu. Find him on Twitter @_tommyd023
