Seton Hall basketball's offense fires on all cylinders in win over Missouri

Seton Hall basketball coach Shaheen Holloway showed faith in a trio of struggling starters, and they rewarded him in a big way Sunday.

Al-Amir Dawes, Dylan Addae-Wusu and Dre Davis fired on all cylinders as the Pirates beat Missouri 93-87 in Kansas City, a potential season-saving win to close out the non-conference schedule.

The Quad 2 victory, technically on a neutral site because Kansas City is two hours from Missouri’s campus, improves the Hall to 7-4 heading into Big East play. Crucially, it’s the Pirates first win over high-major competition after starting the season 0-4 in that category. Perhaps most importantly, it shows what this group is capable of on the offensive end.

“We just stuck with it,” Holloway said during his postgame radio interview. “I told these guys stop reading the headlines, whether it’s good or bad; just worry about the people that’s in the locker room and be more positive. The last couple of games I thought we played with the weight of the world on our shoulders. Everybody came out loose -- and it’s always good to make shots.”

Dawes, who came in shooting 9-of-54 against high majors, drilled his first two 3-point attempts – both of the catch-and-shoot variety, which is his specialty – and finished with 25 points (on 9-of-16 shooting) with 3 assists and no turnovers.

Addae-Wusu showed the ball-handling chops he displayed at times with St. John’s, handing out six assists and taking the playmaking lead as Hall point guard Kadary Richmond got off to a slow start. Addae-Wusu finished with a next-level glue-guy line: 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting, 6 boards, 6 assists and 3 steals. It was, by far, his best performance as a Pirate.

Davis bounced back from three straight tough outings to tally 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting with 8 rebounds.

Missouri (7-4) owned a win at Pitt and pushed Kansas hard on the road last week before losing by nine.

3 THOUGHTS

1. Good shooting cures a lot of ills

It’s simplistic, but sometimes basketball is not rocket science: The Hall’s shooters have to make shots, and that starts with Dawes. He’s actually gotten good looks during most of their losses but couldn’t find the stroke. When Dawes is hitting, especially early, it opens the floor for everyone else.

“It opens up the game," Addae-Wusu said.

“Al is a guy who plays off energy and emotion, but he’s always worried about what everyone is saying and thinking," Holloway said. "I said, ‘Stop doing that.’”

It didn’t show in the record thus far, but the Pirates’ ball movement has gotten incrementally better this season over last, and so has ball security. The offense’s problem has been shot-making. There’s a hardwood adage that good shooting cures a lot of ills, and that certainly applies here, but many of those makes against Missouri were facilitated by crisp ball movement and smart shot selection against the Tigers' zone.

Overall, Seton Hall shot 59 percent from the field, including 10-of-23 from 3-point range (.433), and handed out 16 assists. Noteworthy:

• All five Hall starters scored in double figures for the first time since Dec. 6, 2020 at Penn State.

• Dawes and Addae-Wusu are the first Seton Hall teammates to each make four 3-pointers since Myles Cale and Myles Powell vs. Villanova on March 9, 2019.

It should be noted that Missouri came in with the 85th-ranked defense in the country according to the analytics website Kenpom.com, so this was an impressive outburst.

Holloway said "we're trying to get a neutral site" in the metropolitan area for next season's return game with the Tigers. It's been tough sledding so far to find a date. One option worth considering could be Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, which might be easier to book than the New York arenas and is certainly drivable for Pirate fans.

2. Confidence-builder or one-off?

Holloway pushed the right buttons after the demoralizing loss to Rutgers – emptying his bench against Monmouth to show the starters how it’s done, but ultimately staying the course with his veterans.

Whether this was a “they were due” game or the turning of a corner remains to be seen. Seton Hall’s 3-point defense remains problematic. After Rutgers shot 12-of-24 from deep against the Pirates, Missouri also shot 12-of-24 from beyond the arc. Guys are helping and getting burned. That has to get fixed or at least improved.

But remember that Dawes, Davis and Addae-Wusu have histories of serviceable-to-good shooting. If his performance awakened them, there could be something to build on.

“Came out, played hard, got a big win," Addae-Wusu said. "It helps us build momentum going into conference play.”

3. Huge week ahead

Big East action opens with a bang as fifth-ranked and defending national champion UConn, which his 10-1 with the lone loss a nail-biter at Kansas, visits the Prudential Center Wednesday (7 p.m. CBS Sports Network). Then comes a Saturday trip to mercurial Xavier, which is 6-5 with losses to Delaware and Oakland (2 p.m., Fox Sports 1).

The Pirates shocked UConn at in Newark last year and have taken two straight in the series there. And they've played well at Xavier over the years, dropping a heartbreaker there last winter.

A split will be tough to attain, but it would go a long way toward pushing the reset button as the calendar turns to 2024.

3 QUOTES

Shaheen Holloway, on his pregame talk to the team about jump-starting Dylan Addae-Wusu: “I told them, he’s a guy who’s really struggling, and as a family we’ve got to get him going. And the way to get him going is you guys have got to be super positive with him. You guys go to make sure he’s confident – make sure he takes that shot when he’s open, make sure he takes that drive, make sure he’s playing with energy. And when he’s not, you guys got to challenge him.”

Dylan Addae-Wusu on his talks with Holloway: “He expects more from me. He told me to be myself. For my head coach to show that much confidence in me, I know I have to just be myself – I know he’s going to have my back.”

Addae-Wusu: “It’s within us to compete. We’ve got to come out and believe we can do it.”

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's offense fires in win over Missouri