Garden State rivals Rutgers and Seton Hall square off in the Garden State Hardwood Classic on Saturday. Which New Jersey school comes out on top?
TV Schedule: Saturday, December 15, 2:00p.m. ET, FOXSports1
Arena: Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey
Former Big East cohorts Seton Hall and Rutgers face-off on Saturday as a part of the Garden State Hardwood Classic in Newark, NJ. Seton Hall is 6-3 on the young season and after starting the year 1-2 off of back-to-back losses to Nebraska and Saint Louis, Kevin Willard’s team has won five of their last six, with their marquee win coming last time out with an 84-83 overtime win over Kentucky.
The Scarlet Knights are 5-4 with a win over Miami as their best to date but are looking to end their three-game losing streak in which they lost to Michigan State and battled Wisconsin to a 69-64 outcome.
Statistically for Seton Hall, in the national landscape, they are a middle of the pack or worse team in every category, except turnovers. They are 23rd in the nation in turnovers at just 10.9 per game, they are also 94th in turnovers forced with 15.22. Those numbers put the Pirates 25th in turnover margin at 4.3.
Offensively, junior guard from Trenton Myles Powell is the guy that opposing defenses focus on, and to this point have been unsuccessful shutting down. The 6-2 Powell scores 23 points per game, which is 18th highest in the country. The Pirate backcourt is supplemented by another Myles, 6-6 Myles Cale, and Quincy McKnight. The two have combined for 18.2 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 4.1 assists.
The Seton Hall frontcourt is led by their other double-digit scorer, Michael Nzei and his 10.6 points and sophomore big man Sandro Mamukelashvili. The 6-10 native of Tbilisi, Georgia averages 8.3 points and a team-leading 7.9 rebounds, the big man has led the team in rebounding in seven of their nine games.
The 5-4 Scarlet Knights are one of the better defensive teams in the country, giving up just 62.7 points per game, but they are also one of the most offensively challenged teams scoring 69.4 points themselves. Those offensive numbers include the opening two games of the season where Rutgers averaged 92.5 points, since then the team has failed to crack the 70-point plateau. In the team’s wins, they have given up a suffocating 51 points, while in their losses they have surrendered over 77 per game.
Junior forward Eugene Omoruyi is the team’s leading scorer and rebounder at 15.8 and 9.2 respectively and sophomore Geo Baker is Steve Pikiell’s leading assist man with 4.6 and is 2nd on the team in scoring at 14.6 points. Omoruyi is joined in the frontcourt by the 6-10 Issa Thiam from Senegal who is team’s leading three-point shooter at 44%.
Key matchup
The key matchup in this game will be Rutgers’ ability to stop or slow down Seton Hall’s star junior guard Myles Powell. The 6-2 native of Trenton is the 18th best scorer in the country with his 23 points per game. Powell is a dynamic guard that can score at all three levels on the floor, he is shooting 46.7% from the field and 38% from downtown and if you foul him, he shoots nearly 84% from the line. He began his season with 30 points in a win over Wagner, scored 40 in the win over Grand Canyon, and in his last game had 28 to lead the Pirates over Kentucky.
Look for sophomore guards Geo Baker and Peter Kiss to draw the assignment of tracking Powell. They have a height advantage, 6-4 and 6-5 respectively on Powell, the question is whether that length will be enough to bother him.
Powell has scored less than 16 points once this season, a 20-point win over UNH, so if Baker and Kiss can bottle up Powell a little, it will be a step in the right direction for the Scarlet Knights.
Prediction: Seton Hall by at least eight