Seton Hall Basketball: 3 concerns Pirates have to address after Villanova loss

Seton Hall basketball walked into the Prudential Center to take on the Villanova Wildcats. At stake for the Pirates was the opportunity to clinch the Big East title outright with one game remaining in the regular season and relegate Villanova to second in the conference at best,

Coach Willard was looking to extend Seton Hall’s (21-8,13-4) two-game win streak, while in the back of their minds was the 70-64 victory over Villanova at the Wells Fargo Center, just under a month ago.

That road win by Seton Hall was led by senior guard Myles Powell. And aided by the jump-shooting of Sandro Mamukelashvili. Mamukelashvili would also hit a 3-pointer with 6:30 remaining in the game that put Seton Hall up 53-49. In the final 4:19, Seton Hall would connect on all nine of their free throws preventing any thoughts of a Villanova comeback.

On Wednesday night a record crowd gathered to watch Senior guard Myles Powell play his final game at the Prudential Center on FS1. Each team was led by the usual suspects, Myles Powell dropped 19 points in the contest for Seton Hall, but was bested by Saddiq Bey, who in addition to matching up with Powell on the defensive end added 22 points to lead Villanova to a 79-77 victory.

Villanova’s largest lead reached 14 points, and by the 2:28 mark, Seton Hall was still trailing by ten. It was the Wildcats’ inefficiency at the foul line that allowed the Pirates to turn this into a nail biter.

Villanova missed five of six free throws in the final 30 seconds and survived a Myles Powell three-pointer with seven seconds left and a Myles Cale three-pointer less than a second remaining which would have gone to review if made.

The loss not only prevented Seton Hall of clinching the Big East regular-season title outright in front of their fans but also revealed several problems Kevin Willard needs to address as Selection Sunday approaches.