Seton Hall basketball knocks off No. 23 Providence for signature road win
Providence basketball is a tenant at Amica Mutual Pavilion. Seton Hall might just be the owner.
The Pirates took down the 23rd-ranked Friars 61-57 on the road Wednesday night, winning in that formidable building for the second straight time. The Friars are 46-4 in their last 50 games there, but another of those losses was a 82-58 drubbing by Seton Hall last March.
As a result, the Hall (9-4 overall, 2-1 Big East) now has a signature road victory, a second Quad 1 win and a resume that is suddenly looking viable for a postseason push.
Senior guard Kadary Richmond paced the Hall with 16 points, 6 assists and 8 rebounds, senior wing Dre Davis scored 17 points and senior guard Dylan Addae-Wusu added 12 points and 11 boards -- and sealed the triumph with two free throws in the closing seconds.
“It’s definitely a tough environment – it got super loud when they went on their run,” Davis said. “But this is a testament to who we are as a team. When we take good shots and let our defense lead to our offense, we’re a tough team to beat.”
For Providence (11-3, 2-1), standout junior forward Bryce Hopkins (16.3 ppg, 8.7 rpg) had to be helped off after suffering what appeared to be a painful leg injury in the second half. He exited with 5 points on 1-of-7 shooting and 8 rebounds in 20 minutes.
Seton Hall, thanks in part to a timely switch to zone defense by head coach Shaheen Holloway, held Providence to 37 percent shooting and went plus-5 on the offensive glass. It was the kind of enforce-your-will effort that propelled the Pirates past fifth-ranked UConn at home Dec. 20.
"That’s just who we are: We’re a gritty team and we lay our hats on it," Davis said. "This was a big win and we had to dig deep and find a way to get it."
3 THOUGHTS
1. Showed big-time guts
Four Seton Hall starters logged 36-plus minutes, and fatigue was showing down the stretch in front-rimmed shots and passes without zip as Providence rallied. All told, the Friars' bench outscored the Hall’s 10-0. Yet the starters dug deep in the final four minutes and, though clearly exhausted, showed incredible fortitude.
The Pirates channeled the physicality they exhibited against UConn, but that's harder to sustain on the road because the whistle tends to be less friendly. Pulling it off is the surest sign yet that this group is adopting Holloway's steel-cage mentality.
When you are undermanned -- the depth on the opposing benches is a sure sign of the NIL disparity Holloway faced while putting this roster together -- this is how the Hall has to play every game. If they can do it at the slip-N-slide formerly known as the Dunk, they can do it anywhere.
2. The Richmond-Holloway leap forward
For close Holloway observers, it’s notable that he opened his postgame radio interview with unsolicited praise for Richmond’s toughness (Richmond also outclassed standout Providence point guard Devin Carter, holding him to 4-of-13 shooting). In Holloway’s world, these words are not thrown around lightly. That, and Richmond’s improved consistency as he enters the upper echelon of Big East players, are the latest signs that this all-important relationship is taking a leap forward.
Long-timers will recall that as a player, it took Holloway until season three to mesh with then-Hall skipper Tommy Amaker. When it finally happened, Holloway went next-level – and so did the program.
3. Huge game ahead
Left for dead after the listless home loss to Rutgers, the Pirates enter a new calendar year with new possibilities for a meaningful season. They can throw this new direction into overdrive when they play host to seventh-ranked Marquette (11-3) Saturday (noon, CBS Sports Network). The Prudential Center’s lower bowl (capacity: 10,500) will be sold out or close to it. The Golden Eagles are 4-0 against the Pirates since Shaka Smart took the helm.
A big key will be how Holloway handles the next few days. In the past, he might have pushed, pushed, pushed – because that’s his default mode. But in his postgame radio interview he hinted at focusing on rest. As he did before Missouri, when he gave a down-and-out team some surprising TLC, Holloway continues to be full of surprises.
3 QUOTES
1. Holloway on Richmond (postgame radio): “Proud of Kadary. I wasn’t sure he was going to play; he’s had an eye injury and he only practiced twice since Xavier (on Dec. 23)…I’m proud of him for him gutting it out the way he did.”
2. Holloway on going zone to protect his bigs from foul trouble against Providence big man Josh Oduru (23 points, 9-of-21 shooting, 3 rebounds): “I told them just keep bumping them, keep being physical. I wasn’t going to double because I didn’t want them to get 3s (Providence shot 4-of-17 from deep)…Our big guys did a great job with it.”
3. Dre Davis on adopting Holloway’s mentality: “Game by game, practice by practice, we’re trying to take that on and understand who we are as a team. When we do that, we play well.”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Seton Hall basketball knocks off Providence for signature road win
