Ray Floriani, Rutgers News, Seton Hall News

SETON HALL HOLDS OFF RUTGERS RALLY FOR WIN

Bobby Gonzalez and the Pirates keep NCAA hopes on life support with 76-70 home win Tuesday

by RAY FLORIANI

NEWARK, NJ – Six in a row. Seton Hall defeated Rutgers 76-70 on Tuesday at the Prudential Center giving the Pirates their sixth straight Big East win at home. For Seton Hall, the start was big.

The Keys :

1. As noted the Pirates got off to a blazing start. Bobby Gonzalez’s troops jumped out to a 28-10 lead just over eight minutes into the contest. The Hall forced turnovers, got out in transition and simply played with a great deal of energy. “We jumped out to a great start which is something we wanted to do,” Gonzalez said. “We came out with some great energy.”

2. The lead was never lost. Rutgers gradually settled down and got back in the contest. Down the stretch it was a two possession game (as close as 68-64 with just under three minutes left). Seton Hall not losing the lead was crucial from a momentum standpoint. The Scarlet Knights were able to get back into the game by getting stops and, more importantly, cutting down on turnovers. The First half Rutgers has 12 turnovers. After intermission they had only four. Simply, not losing the ball due to the dreaded turnover gives you an opportunity to end a possession with a shot, at least.

Mike Rosario led Rutgers with 17 points. The high scoring junior worked for everything against some tough defense from the SHU guards and was 7 of 20 (2 for 10 from three) from the field.

“We wanted him to work for every single point,” said Gonzalez after the game. “We wanted to try to wear him down, make him take shots off balance or going away from the basket.”

Dane Miller, Rutgers’ outstanding freshman, also provided firepower. Miller had 6 turnovers, all during the disastrous first half, but finished with 16 points, 9 boards and 5 blocks.

Seton Hall had four players in double figures and was paced by Jeremy Hazell’s game high 25 points. Hazell and senior guard Eugene Harvey made a few big plays down the stretch. Twice RU trimmed the lead to eight and Hazell answered with a three pointer.

“Hazell had a little bit better night than Mike, he got free against our defense,” Fred Hill said of Hazell’s big shots. “Credit to him. He’s older, a junior, he’s supposed to do that.”

Harvey had 10 points, 4 assists and a huge steal in the final minutes which essentially salted the win away much to the delight of the home crowd enjoying the rivalry win.

““Eugene was terrific,” said Gonzalez of his senior.

The game drew an impressive Tuesday night crowd of 9,503 to the ‘Rock’ in Newark.

Bobby Gonzalez talks to a reporter from SNY following Seton Hall's 76-70 win over Rutgers Tuesday night.

Notes: Rutgers coach Fred Hill thinks the rivalry which includes Seton Hall, his Scarlet Knights and St. John’s will even be better. “I can’t wait for the day when New York metropolitan area basketball is something special,” Hill said. “The rivalry is already great but when the respective programs take off and are shooting for something special it will be awesome for the fans.”

Hill on Miller who has won three straight Big East Rookie of the Week awards : “I’ve marveled at his (Miller) consistency,” Hill said. “This is the time of year most freshman ’hit the wall’ but he’s going strong.”

Intentional? With a second left Herb Pope was called for intentionally fouling Miller who was headed in for a dunk. Neither the players nor coaches made a big deal of it. “It wasn’t malicious (the foul) but we don’t want someone dunking on us at the buzzer,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez is aiming for that bid to the Big Dance but is not sure a sweep of the last three games, home against Marquette and at Rutgers and Providence, will do the trick. The Hall coach does feel if you go .500 (and have a decent overall record) in the Big East you should be in. “There are teams from other conferences that wouldn’t last two seconds in the Big East and would probably finish 15th.

Hazell played with stitches in his hand and Harvey practiced the day before for the first time in a week due to a wrist injury.

- Hill admitted coming back from 18 on the road is very difficult. His club came from 17 down at DePaul and pulled that game out a week ago. “I told them at halftime (tonight) just win every four minutes,” Hill said. “Do that and we will be right there.”

- Sunday’s game with Marquette at the ‘Rock’ is senior day for the Pirates and last regular season home game for scholarship seniors John Garcia, who played a solid 11 minutes on Tuesday, and Eugene Harvey.

- SHU redshirt freshman Melvyn Oliver was not on the Pirate bench for a second consecutive game for academic reasons.

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