– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEWARK, NEW JERSEY — The one good thing about Seton Hall falling completely flat during a “prove it” weekend, as it did last week, is that, given its membership on one of the best conferences in college basketball, it didn’t have to wait long for another pivotal game to arrive at its doorstep. Even better, instead of making two of the toughest road stops in the league, the Pirates had the luxury of their home court, and advantage that could be felt immediately amidst the buzzing inside the Prudential Center crowd a good 30 minutes before opening tip.
All that added up to redemption on the court and, hopefully for the Pirates, to the NCAA Tournament committee.
Kadary Richmond scored 20 points with six rebounds and five assists as the Pirates rebounded from back-to-back losses to defeat arch-rival Villanova 66-56 on Wednesday night. Dre Davis scored 18 points while Jaden Bediako produced a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds (eight on the offensive glass), as Seton Hall snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Wildcats.
Despite coming up short in their attempt for a statement win on the road at Creighton and Connecticut in two games last week, a win against a fellow bubble team in Villanova moved clinched no worse than a four-seed for the Pirates in the Big East Tournament that starts next week, and added another quality win to a résumé that quickly is looking better than the rest of the NCAA Tournament contenders in the conference outside of the league’s big three (Connecticut, Creighton, Marquette).
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Wednesday evening’s contest, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Danny Suriel. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 31 pictures in total.
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