Seton Hall at St. John’s
Posted by Brian on February 29, 2008
March 1, 2008
Carnesecca Arena, Queens, NY 4:00pm
TV: MSG, Kenny Albert (play-by-play), John Celestand (color).
All statistics noted include Big East games only.
The Pirates look to make it three straight (two on the road) wins as they take the bus ride over to Queens on Saturday to face the St. John’s Red Storm. The Johnnies (10-17, 4-11) are coming off a 64-52 loss at Georgetown on Wednesday. Just today, coach Norm Roberts was assured he will be the coach of the Storm next season.
St. John’s is led by Anthony Mason Jr and Justin Burrell, their only two double digit scorers. Mason has had a terrific Big East season, putting up 15.2 ppg while pulling down 5.6 rpg. He’s also a good three point shooter (35.2%). Burrell has turned out to be a great signing for Norm Roberts. The freshman is averaging almost 12 ppg in conference play while grabbing the same amount of rebounds as Mason (5.6). Seton Hall will need to key on these two players and keep them in check if they hope to win. D.J. Kennedy, Sean Evans, and possibly Tomas Jasiulionis will also see time in the frontcourt for Coach Roberts.
The Johnnies have a thin but somewhat talented backcourt. Larry Wright is their best shooter (connecting on 37.7% of his three point shots), Eugene Lawrence and Malik Boothe dish out almost three assists a game each, and Paris Horne can come off the bench and provide good three point shooting.
St. John’s is a team that will play a tough, grind it out style. Often difficult to watch on offense, the Red Storm will miss a ton of shots but they do play tough physical defense. Seton Hall has to be careful if they get caught in a slow physical game because that means a lot of halfcourt sets, something the Pirates are not very effective in. I expect Coach Gonzalez to press early and often, trying to speed up the tempo of the game and get some easy baskets. If Seton Hall scores 70 points, they should win this game fairly easily as St. John’s simply can’t get to that point very often. In fact, St. John’s has broken 70 points only three times in conference play, and two of those were the first two games of the season. As long as Seton Hall plays an efficient game on offense and an average game on defense, they will win.
Seton Hall 72, St. John’s 63
