Seton Hall men’s basketball traveled to Orlando, Florida for the ESPN Events Invitational, as they faced the Memphis Tigers on Thanksgiving Day.
Tyrese Samuel knocked down his first triple of the game to get the Pirates rolling after the Tigers’ Kendric Davis converted down low. Seton Hall led for a majority of the first half, with a Dre Davis slam giving them a 6-point advantage with just under 10 minutes remaining in the half.
Memphis went on a 5-1 run to cut the lead back to just two, but The Hall kept fighting and brought their lead to 7, which was the largest of the half. A 3:50 scoring drought for the Pirates ensued to end the half, though, and the Tigers took a 31-30 lead headed into the break in Orlando.
Eight Pirates scored in the first half, led by Jamir Harris’s two makes from behind-the-arc for 6 points. Dre Davis added 6 points himself, while Dawes followed with 5 points of his own to keep The Hall competitive.
Both sides struggled offensively, as there only 19 combined points were scored in the first 8:51 of the second half. The Hall trailed by 3 points with 17:37 remaining, and both teams were faced with a two-minute scoring drought until KC Ndefo converted from the charity stripe to cut the lead to one.
Trailing 46-41, Tae Davis hit his first collegiate three-pointer at the 9:46 mark of the second half to come within two of the Tigers once again. Further down the stretch, two free throws from Tyrese Samuel with 47 second left in the game put the score at 69-67.
Elijah McCadden missed two free throws with 9 seconds remaining, though Memphis got the ball back, and Jamir Harris picked a clutch steal to get the ball back with 3 seconds remaining. Coming out of the timeout, Samuel received the inbound and hit the game-winning triple from the top of the arc to steal the game from Memphis, 70-69.
The Pirates were thankful to grab this victory, led by Samuel’s 14 points and 11 rebounds. Dre Davis continued to shine with 13 points and 2 steals. Tray Jackson added 10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, and a steal in the win.
Seton Hall improves to 4-1 on the season and have now won 4-straight on Thanksgiving Day. They will face Oklahoma in the semifinals at 8:00pm on Nov. 25.
Thomas Donnelly can be reached at thomas.donnelly@student.shu.edu. Find him on Twitter @_tommyd023.
