Saturday Round-up: Seton Hall dominates Louisville in crunch time; Rutgers still without conference win
Seton Hall 92 Louisville 82
With just over four minutes to play in the contest, Seton Hall went on a ferocious run to finish the game, picking up the victory over visiting Louisville 92-82 on Saturday.
Trailing 80-78 in the closing minutes of the second half, Seton Hall went on a 14-2 run, electrifying the home crowd at the Prudential Center. While Seton Hall (12-6, 2-3) got off nights from Jamar Nutter and Eugene Harvey (both combined for just 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting), they received more than plenty from center Brian Laing and Jeremy Hazell. Hazell dropped a game and career-high 29 points, including sinking 8-of-14 3-pointers, and Laing added 25 points and six assists. The Pirates shot 62.5 percent in the second half, making 15-of-24 field goals, while shooting 46 percent from downtown on 13 made 3-pointers.
Louisville (13-5, 3-2) was led by Jerry Smith, who scored 25 points and Terrence Williams turned in a triple-double with 10’s across the board: 10 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists. It is Williams’ second triple-double of the season, the first coming against Hartford on Nov.17th. David Padgett added 12 points and Juan Palacios finished with 11. Derrick Caracter and Earl Clark totaled just nine points on a combined 31 minutes played. The loss snaps Louisville’s four-game winning streak.
Seton Hall will aim for their third win on Thursday night when they travel to Providence. Louisville will be playing their 3 road game in their last four games on Wednesday against South Florida.
DePaul 75 Rutgers 73
Unfortunately sometimes you’re best just isn’t good enough and Rutgers swallowed an extremely difficult pill on Saturday, losing to DePaul 75-73. Rutgers couldn’t have shot the ball any better than they did, shooting 61.7 percent from the field and 61.5 percent from 3-point range on 8-of-14 attempts. However, Rutgers was unable to hold a seven point lead at halftime, 42-35, and DePaul pulled off the comeback victory.
Draelon Burns led DePaul (8-9, 4-2) with 20 points and pair of freshman, Dar Tucker and Mac Koshwal, played their parts as well, with Tucker scoring all 12 of his points in the second half, and Koshwal finished with 18 and five rebounds.
With the game locked at 18 in the first half, Rutgers (8-11, 0-6), Rutgers exploded for a 16-2 run to lead 34-20, and led by as much as 15 in the first half, 37-22 with a little more than six minutes to play. DePaul hung tough and cut the lead to seven going into halftime. DePaul took only their second lead of the game, 64-63 with five and a half minutes to play.
The resilient Scarlet Knights took the lead back 69-66 on a 3-pointer by J.R. Inman, who led Rutgers with 22 points and eight rebounds, but Inman’s effort just wasn’t enough to keep the Blue Demons down. DePaul responded with a 7-0 run and 73-69; the Blue Demons never trailed again. Rutgers has now lost six straight games, all in conference. Four of their six consecutive losses have come on the road, and the Scarlet Knights are still in search of their first win in 2008, with their last win coming over Manhattan on Dec.29th.
Rutgers will attempt to end their six-game skid when they host Villanova on Wednesday night. DePaul will play their last out-of-conference game on Monday against Florida Gulf Coast.
Tags: Big East Basketball, DePaul Blue Demons, louisville cardinals, NCAA Men's basketball, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Seton Hall Pirates