By SEAN BRENNAN | Special to BIGEAST.com
St. John’s and Seton Hall came into their BIG EAST tournament quarterfinal-round game as two programs headed in different directions.
The Johnnies arrived at Madison Square Garden winners of nine of their last 12 games, had the conference’s scoring champion in Julian Champagnie, the conference Coach of the Year in Mike Anderson and in freshman guard Posh Alexander, the first player to win both the Freshman of the Year award as well as Defensive Player of the Year since former Georgetown great Allen Iverson pulled it off in the 1994-95 season.
Seton Hall, on the other hand, was stumbling badly of late. The Pirates lost the final four games of the regular season, including an 81-71 defeat at the hands of St. John’s last Saturday in the regular season finale, and hadn’t won a game since taking down DePaul on Feb. 17. That’s three weeks ago.The Pirates did come to battle with Sandro Mamukelashvili, a Co-Player of the Year, along with a nice supporting cast led by Jared Rhoden, Myles Cale and Ike Obiagu, but would that be enough to right the Pirates’ listing ship?.
Oh, and the one area of common ground the Johnnies and Pirates ddi share was that both programs were currently residing on the NCAA Tournament bubble. So each was in desperate need of a victory.
But thanks to Mamukelashvili and Rhoden, the Pirates ship is still afloat for a voyage to the Big Dance after the pair combined for 39 points and 27 rebounds as Seton Hall held off the Red Storm for a 77-69 overtime victory at the Garden. The victory moves the fifth-seeded Pirates into Friday’s semifinal round where they will meet No. 8 Georgetown at 6 p.m.
The victory snapped that four-game losing streak for the Pirates even though head coach Kevin Willard never had the same doubts others had about his team coming into the tournament.
“The four losses, if you look at who we lost to, we lost to Butler who won last night. We lost at Georgetown and Georgetown is in the semifinals. We lost atome to UConn who is playing as well as anybody and we lost at St. John’s who I think was playing really good basketball,” Willard said. “So my main goal coming into this tournament was to let our guys understand that although (the regular season) didn’t end the way we wanted it to, we’ve been pretty good all year and we just got to come out better in the second half. That was my only message.”
Message received.
After clinging to a 33-32 lead at intermission, the Pirates showed a lot of spunk in the second half. Key among those - outside of Mamukelashvili and Rhoden, that is - was junior big man Ike Obiagu. The 7-2, 270-pounder terrorized the Johnnies in the paint as he recorded seven blocks to go along with his seven points and five rebounds. In fact, Willard made it a point to commend his big man with providing some much-needed electricity in the second half.
“The way Ike played in the second half, how active he was, the blocks he had, he just gave us so much energy which he hadn’t been doing,” Willard said. “I thought it energized our team.”
As did Mamukelashvili and Rhoden. But despite the tandem’s elite production, neither team could pull away from the other down the stretch in regulation. In fact, in the last eight minutes of the second half, no team could build a lead larger than four points. So it was not surprising to see things needed overtime to be settled and that’s when Rhoden stepped up. He drained 6-of-8 free throws in the final 4:30 - with the final ones coming with 22 seconds remaining - to finally seal the deal for the Pirates.
For Rhoden, who played at Our Saviour Lutheran High School in the Bronx, it was nice to play in New York once again.
“It means a lot to me coming back home, being in New York,” Rhoden said. “It’s a dream come true. I had a great conversation with coach this week and I think that kind of helped me, it boosted my morale. I came in kind of being more aggressive, trying to get back to the old Jared of being gritty and doing the little things.”
WIth 19 points and a career-high 16 rebounds, Willard will take as much of the “old” Jared as he can get as the Pirates prepare for the semifinals with Georgetown.
“Jared had been playing great all year,” Willard said. “You’re in the BIG EAST Tournament and and getting the opportunity to be back in the Garden and be able to play in the best college basketball tournament, I think the guys were really excited. And I think they were excited to play St. John’s because we played really well for long stretches of time Saturday and I think Jared didn’t play well on Saturday. So I think he had a little extra motivation to come out and play better.”
That he did, but he got copious amounts of help from Mamukelashvili, who finished with 20 points and 11 boards for the Pirates, his third consecutive double-double performance. But it was not just the win Mamukelashvili was celebrating, but also being back in the Garden after the way last year’s tournament ended.
“Last year we were a top seed and we had a chance to come out here and do great things,” he said. “So this year we were just motivated to be back at MSG. We were playing so hard today. We just feel blessed.”
As does Willard, who got a little emotional when asked what it meant to him to have his team back at the Garden for the BIG EAST Tournament.
“This year has been hard,” Willard said. “It’s been a mental grind, it’s been a physical grind. The sacrifices that we’ve all made to be able to play, the sacrifices that the schools have made, our universities, our leagues, what these players have done. It’s been, really going back since last March when we were really punched in the stomach with all this (pandemic) as it started. Man, I walked into this building and I got on the elevator and I hadn’t felt that good in years. The energy, seeing the same security guards that were here two years ago. It’s hard to explain. It’s very emotional for the fact that I love this tournament, I love this league. We’ve had some great games in this building and to be back was an absolutely energizing feeling.”
And thanks to Mamukelashvili, Rhoden and Company, the Pirates have another night to add to those feelings.