Khadeen Carrington, Seton Hall
Seton Hall Ready to Use Painful Loss as NCAA Tournament Springboard
By Richard Finn
Special to BIG EAST.com
NEW YORK – Twelve months ago on the same Madison Square Garden floor, the Villanova Wildcats lost to Seton Hall in heartbreaking fashion by two points in the BIG EAST men’s basketball tournament championship game.
Villanova responded to that gut wrenching loss by using the game as a springboard for a magical run through March Madness to the National Championship title.
On Friday night, this time in the semifinals, it was the Pirates who suffered a painful 55-53 loss to top-seeded and regular season champion Villanova (30-3) on a Josh Hart put back and foul shot with nine seconds remaining.
“It’s tough,” said Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard. “You give your heart out. You play arguably the best team in the country right down to the wire; you lose.
“But we’ve got to bounce back. I’ve got a lot of confidence in these guys. We’ll bounce back. We’ll fight back. It’s who we are. It’s what we’ve done, “ Willard said of his Pirates (21-11) who early in the season had lost five of six before closing the regular season with a three-game winning streak.
“We’ll get back to work on Sunday and Selection Sunday will come and we’ll get ready to see who we play. We’ll fight and battle whoever we have to play, “ Willard said of the team’s expected spot in the NCAA Tournament when the field is announced on Sunday. “ I love the way we are playing.”
Said Pirates senior guard Madison Jones: “ I feel like we’re at the top of our game right now. And we’ve got a lot of momentum, even though, this one hurt. We are still are positive and coming back strong on Sunday, in the gym and just ready for the NCAA.”
Seton Hall’s last shot by on a strong inside move by big man Angel Delgado roll around and into Hart’s hands who heaved the ball down the court at the buzzer to preserve the thrilling win.
“It took us 39 minutes and 59 seconds to win tonight, “ said Villanova coach Jay Wright. “They played better than us tonight. They are playing good basketball. They’re going to get some people in the tournament.”
Wright was all praise for the Pirates effort and shut down defensive effort and scheme that held his team to a dismal 20-of-48 (41 percent) shooting from the floor. In the first half the Wildcats scored just 20 points.
“They are just really good defensively,” said Wright. “Their athleticism and their physicality, they’re more physical that any team in the league. They do a great job guarding us. The things that we do they match up with really well. “
In the closing weeks of the season, Delgado had put the team on his sturdy 6-10 frame. In the team’s opening 82-76 win over Marquette Delgado had notched his 13 straight double double and 26
th of the season with 12 points and 16 rebounds.
The junior forward, though, never got untracked against Villanova, going scoreless for nearly the first 12 minutes of the game and finishing with just 8 points.
It was still only appropriate that the ball was in Delgado’s hands for the final strong inside move that bounced around the rim and off.
Moments later, Hart went over to console his dejected opponent.
“I told Angel you’re a heck of a player and just keep going,” said Hart. “And we felt this feeling last year. And I said you have this feeling right now. NCAA tournament time, don’t have this feeling again.”