Twitter: SetonHallMBB
The Seton Hall men’s basketball team improved to 8-1 on the season after defeating the Saint Peter’s Peacocks (4-7) 67-52 on Sunday behind a season-high 21 points from senior Brandon Mobley.
After the Pirates suffered their first loss of the regular season on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at Wichita 77-68, the Pirates returned home to welcome a familiar foe in Saint Peter’s University. Last season, an exact year to the day of the Sunday, Dec. 14 meeting with Saint Peter’s the Pirates fell 83-80 in overtime, a game that saw Peacock guard Desi Washington record a season-high 34 points en route to the victory.
On Sunday it the Pirates who took the win and senior forward Brandon Mobley who led all players on the afternoon. His 21 points bested his season-high of 19 scored against Mercer on Nov. 16 and only two points shy from a career-best of 23, scored Dec. 16 versus North Carolina A&T.
“Just taking the ball inside and not staying on the perimeter so much,” Mobley said when asked about what went right for the Savannah, Ga., senior. “Once I was able to get a couple easy ones to go down, I was able to get into a rhythm.”
The Hall opened the game with a 5-0 run as junior guards Jaren Sina and Sterling Gibbs connected with the help of Isaiah Whitehead who struggled to get points, going 2-for-11 from the field, but picked up a career-high in rebounds with 8. Sina rebounded after being held scoreless in the Hall’s last game, while Gibbs finished the day with 12 points.
The Peacocks started cutting into the Pirates lead, which was only by three with under eight minutes left in the first half, but a Brandon Mobley three-point shot kept Saint Peter’s in check, exiting the half ahead by 12.
The Pirates added to that lead in the second half as Mobley scored from the line to put the Hall up by 14. A three-point play by Sina, who was held scoreless on Tuesday versus Wichita finished the day with 6 points. The Hall also received second half contributions from freshman Isaiah Whitehead and Desi Rodriguez.
Angel Delgado also recorded some points of the Pirates, notching 7 on the day, but the real impressive number came in his game-leading 12 rebounds.
The Peacocks would scratch and claw into the 18-point lead with under four minutes to go in the half, but it would be to no avail, as the Pirates would hang on to win by 15.
After the game, head coach Kevin Willard praised the team’s effort. “I thought we did a good job moving the basketball,” Willard said.
Willard also talked about the team’s first loss on Tuesday in Wichita, praising the Wichita crowd for its loudness and the team’s defense.
“I was really, really happy when I went back and watched the film at the defensive effort we gave,” he said.
Willard went on to praise freshman Angel Delgado’s effort on Sunday versus Saint Peter’s, calling the Brooklyn, New York-native a “junk yard-type of player.”
“He has that passion,” Willard said. “I’ve called him Dennis Rodman before—the more I see him, the more it is, he just has that great passion to go get the basketball.”
Delgado finished with a game-high 12 rebounds, including 9 offensive rebounds.
The Pirates will look for Delgado, Mobley and company to continue their efforts as the team heads to Tampa for a meeting with USF on Thursday, Dec. 18, followed by a meeting with Georgia on Sunday, Dec. 21. The Pirates won’t be heading back to the Rock until their conference-opener versus St. John’s on New Year’s Eve. The next home game for the Pirates will be on Saturday, Dec. 27 versus Maine and will be held inside Walsh Gym.
Tip off for the two-game road trip begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday against USF and can be seen on CBS Sports Network.
Neal McHale can be reached neal.mchale@student.shu.edu or on twitter @nealmchale.
