Seton Hall basketball's home streak against UConn ends in a dogfight

NEWARK – With every stop, with every hustle play, with every hard-earned bucket, the roar grew louder at the Prudential Center.

Seton Hall basketball was roaring back down the stretch, once again.

The 10,000 fans who attended Tuesday’s showdown between the 25^th-ranked Pirates and the third-ranked Huskies stood for most of the last hour as the Hall cut an 18-point deficit to one with the kind of gumption and guts this team has showed all season long.

In the end, the Pirates’ four-game home winning streak against the Huskies fell by a score of 69-64, but both squads proved their mettle on a big stage. So impressed was this crowd that it gave the home team a big ovation as it left the court after the final buzzer – something you rarely see after a loss.

Seton Hall (14-3 overall, 4-2 Big East), which is making its first appearance in the Associated Press Top 25 poll since 2022, showed it belonged but UConn (17-1, 7-0) looked like champion material in reeling off its 13^th straight victory.

UConn leads the series 51-24 and holds a 7-5 advantage since rejoining the Big East in 2020.

The Huskies’ last win at the Prudential Center came in 2021 with just 1,700 fans in attendance due to covid restrictions. Their last win here before a full-sized crowd came in 2013.

FIVE TAKEAWAYS

1. Second-half team

The lesson we’ve witnessed all season was reinforced: You better beat these Pirates early, because they coming for you down the stretch. The depth and fight of this team is hard to match.

Now it's time to get those first halves fixed. One place to start is free-throw shooting. The early bricks took a lot of air out of the home team's balloon.

2. Najai Hines passed the acid test

UConn was carving the Hall up inside with 6-foot-11 senior Tarris Reed until freshman Najai Hines rose to the challenge after struggling early to defend the pick-and-roll. As the game wore on the pride of Plainfield was all hustle, ripping balls from Huskies’ arms, diving to the ground, never giving up on rebounds.

He finished with 10 points, seven rebounds (five offensive) and three blocks in an incredibly poised performance for a rookie.  

3. Budd Clark and those fouls

Clark’s foul total has become the most important stat for these Pirates. He didn’t pick up quick ones this time, as he did against Villanova, but they piled up. When he exited the first half for good after picking up No. 2, UConn ripped off a 16-2 run.

Clark possesses off-the-charts stamina, but he was working so hard defensively that he was visibly gassed at times. The Hall has great depth, but keeping him on the floor against upper-tier competition is priority No. 1.

4. More needed from Staton-McCray

Through the first five Big East games, postgrad guard A.J. Staton-McCray averaged 7.8 points while shooting 34 percent from the field and 7-of-21 (.333) from 3-point range, and the UConn game brought more of the same: 2 points on 1-of-5 shooting as the Hall shot just 1-of-16 overall from 3-point range.

This after Staton-McCray was so integral to the Pirates’ 10-1 non-conference showing, during which he averaged 14.3 points and shot 37.5 percent from deep (21-of-56). His assists, steals, and rebounds have dropped off in Big East action as well.

Some degree of declined production is to be expected – conference play is harder, after all. But the Pirates need Staton-McCray’s hot hand, or at least a warm one, to open up the rest of the offense.

5. Students turned out

Seton Hall’s students returned from winter break and made a beeline for the Rock, filling the 1,100-seat student section and then some while donning the black No. 26 Seton Hall jerseys (for the year 2026) that were placed on every seat.

Will they return for Saturday’s noon home game against Butler (10-6, 1-4)? That’s an important move-the-chains opportunity with a trip to St. John’s looming after that. We’ll see, but their engagement – after years of mostly staying away prior to a solid turnout at last month’s Rutgers game – was a good sign.

Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Seton Hall basketball's home streak against UConn ends in a dogfight