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On a Sunday afternoon in the Prudential Center, the men's basketball team blew out Saint Peter's 72-46 to improve to 8-2 on the season.
The Pirates victory came behind stellar defense, holding Saint Peter's to just 18-of-55 from the floor. The Peacocks struggled even more from downtown, connecting only three times in 16 attempts. From the four minute mark in the first half the Pirates went on a heavily lopsided 30-9 run up until 11 minutes remaining in the second half.
Saint Peter's head coach John Dunne felt his team's offensive struggles were the catalyst to the Pirates offensive success.
"We we're a little bit of a deer in headlights," Dunne said. "We weren't composed at all in the first half and I think we gave them points and life off our bad offense."
Seton Hall received a balanced offensive effort, having three Pirates score in double figures. Khadeen Carrington sank 14 points, Isaiah Whitehead notched 12 and Angel Delgado added 10 of his own. Delgado pulled down 10 rebounds along with his scoring effort to complete his fourth double-double of the year.
Delgado spoke after the game about the Pirates success all the way through the roster.
"Everybody played unbelievable," Delgado said. "We're getting people open. Everybody was open today and making shots. I was really happy for that."
Pirates head coach Kevin Willard spoke much of the same about the depth of scoring from his team.
"I liked our balance tonight. We almost had five guys in double digits. That was the one thing I'm starting to really like, that it's just not two guys every night. We're getting good balance."
Saint Peter's guard Antwon Portley fell victim to the Pirates defense as well Sunday afternoon. Portley, who averages 16.7 points a game, finished with just two points on 1-for-8 shooting and missed all three of his attempts from deep.
Willard knew a win for his team would come due to Portley's ineffectiveness, adding that he was the main focus of their defensive game plan coming into the matchup.
"I thought we stuck to our game plan." Willard said. "Our game plan was to take away Portley completely and to make the other two guys beat us. That was the one guy that really, really scared me."
The defensive shut down by the Pirates led to the second lowest point total the team has held an opponent to at the Prudential Center. The lowest total was when the Hall held NJIT to 45 in 2010.
Seton Hall will take the court next Saturday against Wichita State at home in the Prudential Center. Tip-off will be at noon as the Pirates look to avenge their 77-68 loss to the Shockers last season.
Dennis Chambers can be reached at dennis.chambers@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @DennisChambers_
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