Seton Hall University
St. John's
Reynolds' Buzzer-Beater Stuns St. John's, 76-74
12/29/2018 11:04:00 PM | Men's Basketball
In front of a sold out Prudential Center crowd, sophomore Shavar Reynolds (Manchester, N.J.) drained a game-winning three-pointer with 0.4 seconds remaining to complete Seton Hall's rally from a 14-point deficit and edge St. John's, 76-74, in the BIG EAST Conference opener on Saturday.
With the Pirates trailing 72-71, junior Quincy McKnight (Bridgeport, Conn.) in-bounded the ball with 3.1 seconds left to sophomore Sandro Mamukelashvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) in the paint. With the clock winding down, Mamukelashvili found Reynolds on the wing in front of the Pirates' bench, who unleashed the game-winner. The closely-defended heave also drew a foul, and Reynolds intentionally missed the free-throw to ice the contest.
The victory is Seton Hall's sixth straight, and hands St. John's its first loss of the season.
Junior Myles Powell (Trenton, N.J.) had 15 points to lead The Hall in a balanced scoring effort. Three Pirates scored 14 points: Mamukelashvili, McKnight and Michael Nzei (Makurdi, Nigeria). Nzei also collected a team-high 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season.
AHHHHHHH!!! SHAVAR REYNOLDS JR!!! pic.twitter.com/67nQTBhJ7b
— Seton Hall Basketball (@SetonHallMBB) December 30, 2018
THAT'S WHAT WE DO!!!!! #HALLin pic.twitter.com/6CFEtWCZyR
— Seton Hall Basketball (@SetonHallMBB) December 30, 2018
Turning Point:
Trailing 69-59, the Pirates unleashed a 10-0 run, capped by a three-pointer by Mamukelashvili, to tie the game at 69 with only 3:30 remaining in the game. After a three-pointer gave the lead back to St. John's, a jumper by McKnight, followed by a slicing lay-in by Powell gave The Hall its first lead of the game, 73-72, with only a minute left. St. John's Mustapha Heron connected on a pair of free-throws to put the Red Storm back on top with only 44 seconds left, setting up Seton Hall's dramatic finish.
St. John's started the game on fire from the field, converting on its first five shot attempts, including a trio of three-pointers, to grab a quick 13-2 advantage less than three minutes into the first half. Seton Hall chipped away, and a layup by Nzei cut the Red Storm lead to four, 24-20, with 10:32 to go before halftime. St. John's however, responded with a 7-0 burst to extend their lead to 31-20 at the 8:18 mark. In all, the Pirates were held scoreless for 4:23 as the Red Storm built their 11-point advantage.
With 3:15 to go before the break, the Red Storm grabbed their largest lead of the half, 39-25, on a put-back dunk by Greg Williams, Jr. The Hall made a small rally late with the last two field goals of the first half on buckets by Mamukelashvili and Jared Rhoden (Baldwin, N.Y.) to cut St. John's lead to 45-36 at halftime.
Inside the Numbers:
- Seton Hall was 27-for-64 (42.2%) from the field, including 4-for-18 (22.2%) from three-point range. St. John's was similar, shooting 25-for-58 (43.1%) overall, but was 9-for-25 (36.0%) from downtown.
- Seton Hall was 18-for-25 (72.0%) from the free-throw line for the game, while St. John's was 15-for-18 (83.3%).
- The Pirates had 17 assists on their 27 made field goals.
- Reynolds finished with eight points, including his game-winner, and three rebounds in only 12 minutes.
- Powell led Seton Hall with 15 points, four rebounds and a season-high two blocks. He has scored in double-figures in every game so far this season.
- Nzei had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. He also had two blocks.
- The Pirates dominated the glass, out-rebounding St. John's, 46-to-30, including 15-to-5 in offensive boards. The Hall out-scored the Red Storm, 14-to-6 in second-chance points.
- Mamukelashvili scored 14 points on 5-for-8 shooting from the floor. He also had eight rebounds and a career-high four assists. He has reached double-figures in scoring in six of the last eight games.
- McKnight finished with 14 points, four rebounds and four assists. Most impressive was his defensive effort in holding Ponds, last year's BIG EAST leading scorer, to just eight points.
HIGHLIGHTS! Hopefully you didn't miss this CLASSIC in our BIG EAST opening win over St. John's, but in case you did, here's what you missed (HINT: @Shavarr33 made kind of a big shot) #HALLin pic.twitter.com/NlRcqkW3Wl
— Seton Hall Basketball (@SetonHallMBB) December 30, 2018
News & Notes:
- The victory improves Seton Hall to 10-3 on the season, while St. John's suffers its first loss of the year and falls to 12-1 overall. This was the first BIG EAST Conference game of the season for both teams.
- Seton Hall improves to 41-59 all-time against the Red Storm and has now won five of the last six games and 16 of the last 24. Furthermore, the Pirates improve to 14-1 in its last 15 home games against St. John's.
- The Hall is now 7-2 in BIG EAST openers under head coach Kevin Willard. It was the eighth time the Pirates have opened conference play against St. John's, improving to 5-3 in those games.
- The Pirates haven't lost this season when they score more than 65 points in a game.
- This was Seton Hall's third win of the year when trailing at halftime. The other two games were against Kentucky and Maryland.
- With 14 points tonight, Powell passed three former Pirates, Herb Pope, Jamar Nutter and Richie Regan, into 33rd place on Seton Hall's all-time scoring list. He now has 1,170 career points.
- With four assists tonight, McKnight surpassed the 200-assist milestone for his career.
WHAT A GAME! Incredible comeback effort by our guys & MONSTER shot by @Shavarr33 to win this classic BIG EAST game - AND THIS WAS JUST THE FIRST ONE!
— Seton Hall Basketball (@SetonHallMBB) December 30, 2018
Presented by @LifeStorage #HALLin pic.twitter.com/iZLF2U5fXd
Up Next:
Seton Hall will return to action on Wednesday, January 2 when it travels to Cincinnati, Ohio for a contest at Xavier. Tip time is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. The contest will be televised on FS1 and the Fox Sports app, and the newly formed broadcast team of Dave Popkin and John Fanta (Gary Cohen is on vacation) will have the call on AM970 The Answer, simulcast on XM 384 and the Pirate Sports Network.
The Pirates will be back at home on Wednesday, Jan. 9 when they host Butler at Prudential Center. Tickets to the game are available at SHUPirates.com/SHUvsBU.
