Wednesday afternoon the weather was foggy and overcast outside the Prudential Center in Newark. The fog also metaphorically seeped into the arena, as the pregame vibe before the Providence Friars took on the Seton Hall Pirates just felt weird. The early evening start led to a late arriving crowd due to the typically hellish North Jersey traffic rendering the building emptier than normal, but the vibe was even further off with rumors that Kadary Richmond might not play. When Richmond was seen in street clothes not suited up during pregame warmups, the fears were confirmed under circumstances oddly similar to the last time this happened, exactly 11 months ago. Richmond was a late scratch against Xavier at home on February 24, 2023 with what was later revealed to be a stress fracture in his back that caused him to miss the remainder of the season. The good news is this season’s version of the Pirates hung in much tougher than last year’s version which got blasted by Xavier in that matchup. The shorthanded PIrates were in control for big chunks of the game against the Friars including a 10 point lead near the middle of the second half before a big run by Providence took back the lead and put the game away 67-63. Davonte Gaines led four Friars in double figures with 17 points and 6 rebounds, and Al-Amir Dawes led the Pirates with 26 points in the loss.
The first half was a pretty even back and forth affair with neither team able to make much headway or sustain any extended runs until late in the first half. Backup center Elijah Hutchins-Everett had his second straight game with a three pointer to put the Pirates up 20-17 with about seven minutes left in the first. The Friars went on an 8-0 run over a stretch of two and a half minutes capped by a Devin Carter layup to put Providence up 30-23 with 2:52 left. Seton Hall countered with an Al-Amir Dawes steal off Josh Oduro of the Friars and a transition layup to kick up an 8-0 run for the Pirates to close out the half and go into the locker room with a 31-30 lead at the break.
The Pirates rode that momentum into the second half with a dunk by Dre Davis at 17:34 kicking off a 10-2 run which also featured a beautiful floater by Isaiah Coleman who earned his first career start in place of the injured Richmond. A three pointer from Dawes put the Pirates up 51-41 for their biggest lead of the game with 12 minutes left. At that point, every Pirate not named Al Amir Dawes or Isaiah Coleman just disappeared, with Providence exploding for a 19-4 run over the next seven minutes capped off by a thunderous dunk by Josh Oduro to take the lead and not look back. The Pirates managed only four field goals in those final 12 minutes (two each for Dawes and Coleman) as they sputtered down the stretch to their second straight defeat heading into a tough midwest trip this weekend.
In the postgame press conference, Al-Amir Dawes praised his freshman teammate Isaiah Coleman for stepping up with 11 points and 5 rebounds in his first start saying, “That’s just him getting his feet wet. He definitely can do a lot more and will. I’m super proud of him for stepping up when his name was called. He’s got a lot of potential and he’s got more to come.” Coach Shaheen Holloway said only “He’s got some soreness going on with his body” when asked about Kadary Richmond’s injury status, and that he just found out at the shootaround he wasn’t playing so he had no idea of timetable. Holloway did not budge when reporters tried to press for more information, showing again that he is a fantastic representative of a university with a world class school of Diplomacy and International Relations with the way his program treats injury information like state secrets. Holloway did provide an assessment of the Pirates stumbling down the stretch, saying “All that being said, we were up 10 and we just kind of sank quick…we stopped running our offense and tried to go 1 on 1 against a good defensive team and it didn’t work.”
News and notes:
- Seton Hall greats Jared Rhoden (Class of 2022) now with the Detroit Pistons and former NBA player Andre Barrett (2004) were sitting courtside across from the Pirates bench.
- This was the Pirates first loss this season when they were leading at halftime, they are now 12-1 in that category.
- Providence (13-6/4-4 Big East) goes home to host Georgetown on Saturday at 12:30pm on Fox.
- Seton Hall (13-7/6-3 BE) now goes on the road to the Midwest for two games, first at #14 Marquette on Saturday at 1pm, then at DePaul on Tuesday at 9pm. Both games will be on FS1.