Seton Hall defeats Providence in wacky Big East affair

The game was suspended last night. The contest was also moved from The Dunk to Alumni Hall. In spite of all that, the Providence Friars and Seton Hall Pirates completed their important Big East game on Thursday afternoon. By afternoon’s end, the Pirates seized control of this wild affair, and earned an 89-77 victory.

Seton Hall primarily won thanks to the outputs of Khadeen Carrington and Myles Powell. Carrington and Powell combined for 45 of their 89 points, and shot a deft 14-25 from the field and 5-8 from the 3-point line. They were also 12-20 from the free throw line, too, so they made it count from just about everywhere. Carrington led the way with 25 of those 45 points and only needed 13 shots to get there. He sunk eight of those 13 attempts, good for a FG% of 61.5 percent. Powell, meanwhile, picked up 20 points while shooting 6-12 from the field. He was especially sharp from deep, as the sophomore shot 4-6 from beyond the arc.

The Hall’s backcourt is a potent one when it’s on. And Wednesday night and Thursday morning, it was most certainly on.

The efforts of Myles Cale didn’t go unnoticed either. Cale put up eight points in 32 minutes, proving to be a good source of offense off the bench.

Providence tried to answer, but couldn’t quite get the production it wanted. The Friars got 25 points out of senior guard Kyron Cartwright and 13 out of Rodney Bullock, but the slack wasn’t picked up elsewhere. Only Alpha Diallo joined them in double figures, and he wound up fouling out of the game. Maliek White was the closest with nine, but others all scored six points or less. Juxtaposed with the efforts of Seton Hall, who had four scorers in double figures (Carrington, Powell, Ismael Sanogo and Angel Delgado) and you can see where things fell apart.

Desi Rodriguez, who only played just 12 minutes, left the game with an ankle injury on Wednesday night after slipping on the court (This likely had an effect on the eventual decision to suspend the game). Rodriguez won’t be available for the game against St. John’s this weekend, per Kevin Willard by way of Jon Rothstein.

This is a big win for Seton Hall to say the least. The Pirates had to get back on track after their four-game losing streak. They’ve since responded with two in a row with a winnable game against the Johnnies coming this weekend. They can very easily get out of the hole they dug themselves into, but it will certainly take more resolve.

Providence, however, falls into a bit of a hole now. They lost two in a row and three of their last four after sitting at 7-4 back on February 6. They close with St. John’s to end the season, but first must go to see both the Georgetown Hoyas AND the Xavier Musketeers this Saturday and next Wednesday. It might be worth noting that the Friars are 3-6 on the road this season.

It won’t get any easier for either of these teams going forward. But, that’s life in the Big East, for ya. Sometimes you even have to play games in the afternoon.