Pirates Fall to Bluejays on Senior Night, 79-61

Published: Wednesday, March 5, 2025

by Bobby Steiner

NEWARK, N.J. - The Seton Hall Pirates (7-23, 2-17) were unable to get the win on Senior Night at the Prudential Center, as they lost 79-61 to the Creighton Bluejays (21-9, 14-5) on Tuesday night.

Before the game, Dylan Addae-Wusu, Chaunce Jenkins, and Yacine Toumi were honored to much fanfare from the Pirate faithful. Toumi got the start tonight as well.

The Hall were off to a quick and promising start, as Garway Dual knocked down a three to open up the scoring. The Pirates displayed incredible hustle on the defensive front. Namely, Toumi laid out to grab the steal before the ball went out of bounds, and Dual extended fully into the air to swat away a pass.

Godswill Erheriene continued his lockdown defense of some of the nation’s best big men too, holding Ryan Kalkbrenner to only seven points in the first half. However, the woes came from the Hall’s offensive output, as unusual shot selection became an issue. In the half, the team shot under 24% from the field.

The bench acted as a spark in the half’s waning minutes. David Tubek checked into the game and immediately hit a much-needed three-pointer, while Scotty Middleton racked up eight points off the bench, going a perfect 2-2 from beyond the arc.

The team was missing Erheriene for the entire second half, but despite losing an important big, Emmanuel Okorafor stepped up and started the half strong. He notched six early points, coming from a putback on an Isaiah Coleman missed midrange, a jumper of his own, and a two-handed slam.

While the Hall picked it up offensively, so did Kalkbrenner for the Bluejays. Without Erheriene to guard him, the 7’1” center had 13 second-half points on 6-8 shooting. He led the way for the Jays with 20 points and 9 boards, shooting just under 70% from the field.

Despite the final score, the Hall’s press defense throughout the second half proved difficult for Creighton to beat. The Bluejays struggled to avoid ten-second violations as the Pirates swarmed ballhandlers.

There were many positives for this Pirates team to go alongside this in-your-face defense. They dominated offensive rebounding, tallying 16 compared to Creighton’s three. The Hall didn’t allow a single second-chance point either, while they had 19.

The rebounding game was exemplified by Addae-Wusu, at one point soaring towards the net to grab his own miss, then put it back for two.

Seton Hall played a great game in their Prudential Center finale. But it’s hard to win a ballgame when the other team shoots 63% from the field and makes over half of their three-point attempts.

After this loss, the Pirates will try to right the ship in the season finale on the road against the Connecticut Huskies (20-9, 12-6) on Sunday.

Tipoff is set for 2:30 p.m. Eastern, with Joe Morales and Michael Bellifemini on the call. You can listen live on 89.5 FM WSOU, where pregame coverage will begin at 2 p.m. with Chris Jones and Kyle Ferreira breaking down the matchup.

Bobby Steiner is Programming Director at WSOU and can be reached at robert.steiner@student.shu.edu. 

 

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