Seton Hall University
No. 24 Providence
Pirates Clipped by Providence on Senior Night
3/4/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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NEWARK, N.J. - Senior Brandon Mobley (Savannah, Ga.) and freshman Isaiah Whitehead (Brooklyn, N.Y.) each scored 13 points for the Seton hall men's basketball team on Wednesday night but visiting Providence pulled away late to secure a 79-66 victory in the Pirates final scheduled home game of the season.
The Hall (16-13, 6-11 BIG EAST) led by as many as 15 in the first half but the Friars (21-9, 11-6 BIG EAST) connected on two-thirds of their field goals in the second half to seal the win.
Mobley, who was honored prior to the contest along with fellow seniors Haralds Karlis (Riga, Latvia) and Stephane Manga (Orleans, France), finished as one of the team's high scorers for the fifth time this season. Whitehead scored 10 of his points in the second half to finish in double-figures for the 12th time in his debut season and the fourth in the last five outings.
Fellow newcomer Angel Delgado (Bajos De Haina, Dominican Republic) entered the night as the top freshman rebounder in the nation and finished with seven boards - his 14th-straight game with at least seven rebounds - and added eight points.
Junior Sterling Gibbs (Scotch Plains, N.J.) made it three Pirates in double-figures, scoring 11 points and tying Whitehead with a team-high four assists off the bench.
The Hall played from in front for over 17:30 of the first half and took an eight-point edge into the locker room but Providence tallied the first nine points of the final frame; moving ahead, 38-37, on a Kris Dunn jumper at the 18:06 mark. Gibbs stemmed the charge with five points on the Pirates next two possessions, burying a three and knocking down a quick-release floater from the left side.
Delgado answered a corner trifecta from Ben Bentil with an old-fashioned three-point play to level the score at 45-45 with 14:19 remaining.
Three different Friars scored during an ensuing 7-0 run that put PC back on top however and though Whitehead provided a boost with two treys over a two-minute stretch, Providence pushed their lead to double-digits for the first time on two Junior Lomomba free throws that made it 62-51 with 8:30 to go.
Consecutive jumpers by the seniors Mobley and Karlis cut the deficit to seven ahead of the seven-minute mark but Seton Hall drew no closer as Providence connected on 16-of-24 field goals and 15-of-17 free throws in the final stanza to seal its fourth victory in the last five games.
Seton Hall jumped out in front from the opening minutes with the senior Mobley igniting a hot-shooting start with a four-point play on the Pirates' second possession of the game. The Hall forced Providence to misfire on their first six field goal attempts of the contest while connecting on seven of the first 10 on the other end an a baseline jumper by Desi Rodriguez (Bronx, N.Y.) gave SHU a 17-10 advantage with 12:41 remaining before the half.
The Friars kept pace by going 8-of-9 from the line in the first 10 minutes and a layup from LaDontae Henton pulled PC to within one at 20-19 with 9:11 left in the opening period. Freshman Khadeen Carrington (Brooklyn, N.Y.) found Mobley on a scoop pass down low for a bucket on the ensuing possession, kick-starting a run of 11 unanswered points that featured a flurry of 3-pointers.
The Pirates connected from long distance three times in a 50-second span with Whitehead recording the assist each time. The first came courtesy of Gibbs who collected a shovel pass and buried an elbow triple on the secondary break. The next two treys belonged to Karlis who first found the bottom of the net from the right corner off another feed from Whitehead and followed with another in transition following a block by Delgado.
Gibbs picked out Carrington for a fastbreak layup that stretched the lead to 15 at 36-21 but Carrington's hoop was one of just two combined field goals for either team in the final five minutes of the half.
Providence closed with eight of the last nine points in the period to pull within single-digits, 37-29, at intermission. Six of those points came from the charity stripe however and it was free-throw shooting that kept the Friars in it prior to halftime as PC went 14-for-16 from the foul line as opposed to 7-for-27 (.259) from the field over the first 20 minutes.
The Hall recorded nearly as many treys (6) as Providence did field goals in the first half and recorded an assist on 10 of its 13 made shots in the period.
Karlis chipped in eight points and three assists while Carrington posted nine points and three helpers of his own.
Bentil and Henton each posted 21 points for Providence while Dunn added 17, all of which came in the second half.
The Pirates will head to the nation's capital to close the regular season against Georgetown on Saturday, March 7. Tip-off is scheduled for Noon and the game will be shown live nationally on FOX. A stream of the action will also be available through the FOX Sports Go app while the radio broadcast can be found on 570AM (WMCA) or the Pirate Sports Network on SHUPirates.com.
