Seton Hall’s recent history with the Creighton Blue Jays has not been very favorable, punctuated by two blowout losses last season. The setbacks of 83-61 in Omaha and 72-65 in Newark last year were not as close as the final scores indicated, with the Pirates having no real answer for Ryan Kalkbrenner inside and Baylor Scheierman outside. This season is much different with the Pirates coming into the day tied for first place in the Big East. On Saturday afternoon at Prudential Center in front of an animated sellout crowd the script was flipped on its head, tossed out the window, and set on fire with an instant classic matchup where neither team ever led by more than nine points. Three extra sessions were required to settle it before the Blue Jays (14-5 overall/5-3 Big East) edged past the Pirates (13-6/6-2) 97-94, stopping Seton Hall’s win streak at 5 games and 8 of their last 9. Kalkbrenner led Creighton with 28 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 blocks and Kadary Richmond paced the Pirates with his first career triple double of 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists.
Creighton made the first move jumping out to an early 15-8 lead over the first 6+ minutes, then Seton Hall countered with a 16-8 run of their own to take the lead 24-23 on a Dre Davis jumper with seven minutes remaining in the first half. The teams exchanged baskets until the Pirates ended the first half going scoreless for the last 4:37 of the half until Jaden Bediako made a dunk and one with one second left going into halftime with the Blue Jays holding a 35-31 lead.
The second half started with a 9-0 run by The Hall to take the lead 40-35. Two jumpers by Al-Amir Dawes led the way to put the Pirates in control for much of the second half, with their largest lead coming at 48-39 with 13:16 remaining. From there, Creighton caught fire from behind the arc with a three pointer by Steven Ashworth kicking off a 21-6 Blue Jays run over the next seven minutes. A rare three from Pirates backup center Elijah Hutchins-Everett closed the deficit to 1 at 62-61 with 4:33 left, setting up a sprint to the finish that ended up lasting an extra 15 minutes. Francisco Farabello put the Blue Jays up 4 on a three pointer with 2:47 left. Seton Hall jumped out to a 6-0 burst with Kadary Richmond’s layup with 21 seconds left giving the Pirates the lead. Dre Davis fouled to stop the clock with 12 seconds left, and a defensive stand led to Creighton burning two timeouts just trying to get the ball inbounds before a five second call, but Baylor Scheierman took a few noticeable steps on the sideline trying to get the ball inbounds but no travel was called. Once the Jays got the ball inbounds, they found Steven Ashworth inside to make a layup through traffic to send the game to overtime tied at 67.
In the first overtime frame, two straight pick and rolls to Ryan Kalkbrenner had the Blue Jays up 4 with 1:16 left and things looked grim for the Pirates when two free throws from Richmond and a missed free throw from Trey Alexander gave the Pirates a chance to tie or win. Richmond missed a layup but Dre Davis was there for the offensive rebound and putback to tie the game at 75. Scheierman missed a three pointer at the buzzer to send the game to a second overtime.
Creighton had the Pirates up against the wall again in the second overtime with a Mason Miller three and a free throw from Steven Ashworth had the Blue Jays up four 83-79 with 26 seconds left. Trey Alexander fouled Al-Amir Dawes while he was taking a corner three with 16 seconds left. Dawes made all three shots from the charity stripe to close the gap to one at 83-82. Richmond stole the ball from Farabello and quickly found Dawes for the go-ahead layup…which led to a second controversial officiating move, as the layup was waved off by the officials calling a Steven Ashworth reach-in foul of Richmond before he passed the ball to Dawes, which put Richmond at the line for two high pressure free throws instead with 12 second left. Richmond made the first but missed the second. Trey Alexander missed his shot sending the game to a third overtime tied at 83.
The Pirates jumped out to a five point lead at 88-83 with 3:27 left then the absence of Dre Davis who had fouled out in the second overtime appeared to catch up to them as they faded down the stretch but still took back the lead 91-90 on two Richmond free throws with 42 seconds left. Trey Alexander came back and hit a three pointer to put the Jays back ahead and put up the Kalk-wall to stop the Pirates. Richmond’s layup was blocked by Kalkbrenner but rebounded by Dawes but his jump shot was rebounded by Kalkbrenner to stop the Pirates last stand and close out a 97-94 thriller that was easily the craziest game in the Big East so far this year.
News and notes:
- This was only the second 3OT game in Seton Hall Pirates history, with the other being a 71-69 win over Columbia in 1983. It was believed to be the first 3OT in Creighton’s history.
- Kadary Richmond’s triple double was only the second ever in Pirate history, with the first being Eddie Griffin’s “block party” game in Walsh Gym against Norfolk State in 2000. Richmond also fell just short of a triple double last season with 11 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists against Butler at home on 1/7/2023.
- Seton Hall is now 3-3 against AP Ranked opponents this year, defeating UConn (ranked 5th at the time) at home, Providence (23) on the road, and Marquette (7) at home. The Pirates fell to USC (23) in San Diego, Baylor (6) on the road, and now Creighton (18) at home. The Pirates were just outside the top 25 themselves this past week, receiving 89 points at 28th. While many fans are upset that the Pirates remain unranked, they have traditionally played better while flying under the radar. The next poll on Monday will show if voters still feel that way after the St John’s win and the valiant effort in defeat today.
- Seton Hall’s next game will be on Wednesday at home against Providence tipping off at 6:30 on FS1. Creighton plays Xavier at home on Tuesday at 8:30 on FS1.
JD Walker is one of the co-founders of Stream Punk Entertainment and has covered the Philadelphia Union since 2022. He has a wide-spanning career with experience in a variety of roles inside and outside the world of sports including basketball operations, gameday entertainment, promotions, broadcasting, and finance. He’s a Jersey Shore native sprung from a cage on Highway 9, and loves to geek out on the business and legal side of the games we all love.