Seton Hall Basketball: 2 takeaways from Pirates OT win over Penn State
By Joe Casey
Slow stars will hurt the Pirates going forward
During the road trip, Seton Hall found them playing from behind a majority of the time. Many games looked to be over before the Pirates made rallies to make the games closer than they seemed. Recapping their last four games, the team faced Iona and fell behind immediately, trailing by two headed into halftime, before taking control of the game in the second half.
Against Rhode Island, the Rams dominated Seton Hall the majority of the game, contrary to the first half score, and it was not until the second half that the team was able to chip away at their lead before falling behind again. In their third game, the team failed to find consistency from Sandro Mamukelashvili and ended up losing by thirteen to the Ducks in Omaha.
Penn State was more of the same. The Pirates only led for two minutes and seventeen seconds the entire game and their only lead of the first half was 2-0 in the opening minute. Falling behind at one point by a game-high 19 the team put their own backs against the wall in the first half and could have easily buckled under the pressure of a large deficit and let this game get away from them.
However, the Pirates battled back and put them in a position late in the game to steal the win from a tough Penn State team that will be a major problem when BIG 10 play start in the upcoming weeks. It feels like the Nittany Lions lost this game more so than the Pirates won this game.
As an experienced team, Seton Hall should get credit for their ability to face adversity, keep their composure, and fight back in a game they needed but if they want any chance to succeed the slow starts that have plagued the team in their first five games need to end before Big East play.
Moving forward the Pirates should be able to get off to better starts when Bryce Aiken is inserted back into the lineup. Aiken brings a much-needed scoring punch to the rotation and allows the team to play through an extremely experienced point guard for the rest of the regular season. If Aiken returns and they are still unable to limit opposing teams from getting off to hot starts the team could struggle immensely going forward.