Pirates Wrap Up Regular Season at UConn

Published: Saturday, March 8, 2025

by Mike Bellifemini

The Seton Hall Pirates (7-23, 2-17) will close out their regular season Saturday afternoon on the road against the back-to-back defending national champion UConn Huskies (21-9, 13-6) at Gampel Pavilion.

The Pirates will look to pull off another upset against the Huskies after defeating them 69-68 in overtime at the Prudential Center on Feb. 15. It was the fourth straight season the Pirates beat UConn in Newark, with Scotty Middleton sealing the win for Seton Hall with a putback layup with three seconds remaining in the extra frame.

Dylan Addae-Wusu also helped secure the win with clutch shots down the stretch, and Godswill Erheriene recorded his first career double-double. Isaiah Coleman led the Pirates with 23 points, while Alex Karaban paced UConn with 20 points.

However, the Pirates have not had much success at Storrs recently, with their last win at Gampel Pavilion coming in 2021. The Huskies are coming off a huge home win Wednesday night, defeating No. 20 Marquette 72-66 in a nailbiter that saw Karaban score a team-high 21 points.

Star freshman Liam McNeeley struggled from the field, going 4-for-18 in the contest, but he is expected to be one to watch on Saturday as he leads the team in scoring with 15.1 points per game.

UConn has a lot to play for in the BIG EAST regular-season finale, as it could still potentially earn the No. 2 seed in the upcoming BIG EAST Tournament. However, the Huskies would need Butler to defeat Creighton and Marquette to defeat St. John's for this to happen.

As for Seton Hall, its chances at the No. 10 seed at Madison Square Garden took a huge blow Wednesday night after DePaul pulled off a surprise comeback at Providence to move out of a tie with the Pirates.

The only way for Seton Hall to avoid finishing in last place in conference play is to sweep UConn and have Georgetown beat DePaul. That would place the Pirates in the 7 vs. 10 game at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. However, this is a tall task for the Pirates. If they lose, they will face the Villanova Wildcats, already locked into the No. 6 seed, at 9 p.m. in the final game of the first round.

Tipoff is scheduled for 2:30 as the Pirates look to upset the Huskies once again. Joe Morales and Bobby Steiner will have the call, with coverage beginning at 2 p.m. on WSOU-FM, your home for Seton Hall men’s basketball. 

Mike Bellifemini is an Assistant Sports Director at WSOU 89.5 FM and can be reached at michael.bellifemini@student.shu.edu. 

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