Seton Hall defeats St. John’s with buzzer-beating three

If you didn’t watch Saturday night’s game and you had to guess a Seton Hall player that hit a game-winning three at the buzzer, how many guesses would it take before you landed on Shavar Reynolds?

Let’s see, there are 12 scholarship players on Seton Hall’s roster, so Reynolds would probably be the 11th or 12th player you say.

Part of what makes college basketball so great is the opportunity for literally any player to make a timeless and everlasting moment. That’s what happened in the final seconds of Seton Hall’s 76-74 victory.

But first, let’s backtrack a couple seconds.

With a one point lead, Shamorie Ponds went to the free throw line to attempt a one and one. Ponds missed the front end and Seton Hall got the rebound. They pushed the ball ahead to Myles Powell, who had his layup blocked out of bounds by LJ Figueroa. With 3.9 seconds left, the Pirates inbounded the ball and it appeared that St. John’s came up with a steal, but the referees blew the whistle and stopped the play. They went to the monitor for a “clock issue” but it was clear the whistle never should have been blown. After that, Reynolds hit his three.

Now, is it bad that the referees appeared to miss a call at a pivotal moment of the game? Yes, but consider this: St. John’s missed the front end of two one-and-ones in the final minute, while leading by one possession. Additionally, the Red Storm led by 12 points with ten minutes to play.

Old conference play problems and habits showed themselves for the Red Storm, as they took their first loss of the season to the best team they’ve played this year due to a failure to execute down the stretch. St. John’s saw that aforementioned 12 point lead disappear thanks to a 10-0 Seton Hall run during which the Red Storm missed nine straight field goals. They need to play a complete game if they want to compete in the Big East. Mustapha Heron’s 19 points and four threes were nice, but just four of those points were in the second half. Shamorie Ponds had all eight of his points in the second half (and finished with seven assists, six rebounds, and five steals, a fine all-around performance) and the Red Storm as a whole scored just 29 points in the second half after scoring 45 in the first half.

Seton Hall also needs to play a more complete game, as they led for just 16 total seconds in this game. Myles Powell was pretty well-contained, scoring 15 points on 15 shots. Michael Nzei excelled, though, putting in 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

In all, it’s another very good win for a Seton Hall team that has racked them up so far this season. The Pirates improve to 10-3 and face Xavier in Cincinnati Wednesday night, while St. John’s falls to 12-1 and host Marquette Tuesday night.