Seton Hall University
Saint Peter's
Mobley, Pirates Down Peacocks, 67-52
12/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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NEWARK, N.J. - Senior forward Brandon Mobley (Savannah, Ga.) delivered a season-high 21 points to lead all scorers as the Seton Hall men's basketball continued its home dominance with a 67-52 victory over Saint Peter's at the Prudential Center on Sunday afternoon; the Pirates fourth win by a double-digit margin in five appearances at The Rock this season.
The Hall (8-1) played from in front for all but 23 seconds in the contest and improved to 5-0 at home overall, bouncing back from a nine-point setback at #11 Wichita State on Tuesday.
Mobley carried the load offensively as his 15 first half points were more than any other player totaled over the entire contest. The 6-foot-9 forward finished with a career-high eight field goals on 13 attempts, adding seven boards and matching a season-high with three blocks.
Sterling Gibbs (Scotch Plains, N.J.) finished with 12 points to reach double figures for the ninth time in as many games while freshman Angel Delgado (Bajos De Haina, Dominican Republic) continued to dominate down low, scoring seven points and hauling in a game-high 12 rebounds; nine of which came on the offensive end.
Delgado entered the day as the BIG EAST leader with 3.6 offensive rebounds per game and has now grabbed at least 10 boards in five of his nine career appearances. The tone was set in the first half as five different players combined to score the The Hall's first 11 points as the Pirates jumped out to an 11-4 advantage in a game in which they never trailed. Following a pull-up jumper by Khadeen Carrington (Brooklyn, N.Y.) that capped the stretch at the 15:20 mark however, SHU did not score until over three minutes later when Carrington found Gibbs for his second 3-pointer of the early going to push the lead back to six at 14-8.
A lay-in from Mobley that came off an offensive board and feed from Delgado gave Seton Hall an 18-10 edge, but the Peacocks responded by scoring 13 of the next 19 points, pulling to within one at 24-23 on a Desi Washington jumper with 4:32 remaining in the period.
The Pirates, spurred by Gibbs and Mobley, answered back with a 15-4 run to close the half that helped build the decisive margin. Gibbs and Mobley accounted for all 15 points in the surge and with just one second remaining on the clock, Mobley collected a pass from Isaiah Whitehead (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and connected from the corner with a buzzer-beating trey that sent SHU into the locker room with an exclamation mark.
Saint Peter's never pulled closer than 12 points in what developed into a back-and-forth second half. Freshman Desi Rodriguez (Bronx, N.Y.) recorded four consecutive points within a minute after the Peacocks twice narrowed the deficit to 14, throwing down a highlight reel slam off his own steal to make it 53-37 with just under 13 minutes to go.
Consecutive jumpers from Whitehead and Mobley gave The Hall its largest lead of the day at 60-39 at the 10:00 mark and Seton Hall went on to close out its eighth win of the season in convincing fashion.
Rodriguez and Carrington each chipped in seven points off the bench while Whitehead added five while doubling his previous season-high with eight rebounds. Gibbs, Whitehead, Rodriguez and Jaren Sina (Lake Hopatcong, N.J.) each recorded three assists as the Pirates totaled 15 helpers on 23 field goals.
Gibbs also knocked down three of his four attempts from beyond the arc and is now a gaudy 23-of-41 (.561) from long distance in his second season in blue & white, the top mark in the league and one of the top-10 percentages in the nation.
SPU was limited to 36.5 percent shooting - the sixth time SHU has held its opponent under 40 percent from the field - and tallied only five assists against 11 turnovers. Leading scorers Desi Washington and Marvin Dominique, a duo that combined for 59 points in the Peacocks' 83-80 overtime triumph over SHU last December, were held to a combined 8-for-26 (.308) and finished with 13 and nine points respectively.
With the victory, Seton Hall also moved to 29-4 when hosting non-conference opponents in five years under head coach Kevin Willard and is now 44-7 all-time at home against the in-state rival Peacocks.
The Pirates will embark on a two-game road swing that will span six days, first traveling to Tampa to take on old BIG EAST foe USF on Thursday, December 18. A live national telecast can be seen on CBS Sports Network with tip-off scheduled for 7:00 p.m. The Seton Hall radio team of Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin will cover the action for AM970 and the Pirate Sports Network on SHUPirates.com.
