WEST LONG BRANCH – There are 13 new players on Seton Hall’s basketball team, and it showed in Saturday’s exhibition at Monmouth.
The Pirates struggled mightily on offense but rallied to win 53-50 before a rowdy crowd of about 3,000 at OceanFirst Bank Center.
Senior guard Simeon Wilcher, a Plainfield native with previous stops at St. John’s and Texas, came on strong down with nine points down the stretch and senior wing Rodney Brown, a Loyola Marymount transfer, broke a tie with a 3-pointer from the right corner with 6.8 seconds left.
It was notable that Hall coach Shaheen Holloway entrusted combo guard Roddie Anderson – not either of his struggling point guards – to run the offense on that passion. Anderson drove and delivered the assist.
Lo Walker, a 6-4 guard transfer from North Carolina A&T, paced balanced Monmouth with 11 points.
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
Brutal ball-handling
October affairs are going to be sloppy, especially when you have 13 new players, and Seton Hall’s offense looked flat-out bad.
The Pirates’ ball-handling was a mess. Point guard Del Jones overdribbled and passed poorly. His backup, Mihailo Petrovic, scored seven points but threw several passes away.
Center Terry Copeland clearly had a matchup edge, but the guards struggled to feed him. The Pirates also didn’t push the ball much despite 16 Monmouth turnovers and a slight rebounding edge.
It was a brutal thing to watch.
Shooting woes
Shaheen Holloway sought to address last season’s big bugaboo – poor 3-point shooting – in the transfer portal.
On this night, the Pirates shot just as poorly.
They were 4-of-20 from 3-point range and 36 percent from the field. But unlike last year’s squad, they didn’t get to the free-throw line enough, shooting just 4-of-7 from the stripe.
Getting to the line is one of Holloway’s top offensive priorities. But the ball movement and attacking edge simply were not there.
Rotation notes
Holloway started guards Del Jones, Simeon Wilcher and Roddie Anderson, forward Elijah Fisher and center Terry Copeland.
In the first wave of subs, he inserted wing Rodney Brown, point guard Mihailo Petrovic and forward Mayar Wol, with forward/center Devin Williams and guard Kareem Thomas coming in shortly afterward.
Midway through the second half Holloway used the rest of his active roster, giving freshmen forwards Theo Airhienbuwa and Ilay Dolinski and freshman guard Darien “Payday” Moore some run.
Backup center Abdulai Fanta Kabba (hamstring) and point guard Trey Parker were present but did not dress.
It’s clear that Holloway wanted to get everyone on the floor and experiment with some combos. The primary mission of these exhibitions is not to win – it’s to get the team ready for when the curtain goes up. With so many new bodies, Holloway is still knee-deep in the discernment process.
Give Monmouth credit
The Hawks were aggressive defensively, with a high press and active hands. They were in the passing lanes but didn’t overplay the ball. King Rice correctly tested the Pirates’ pressure point – their point-guard play – and his guys battled the Hall to a draw on the boards. He has to be pleased with the effort.
After falling in the Coastal Athletic Association final in March, this is a contender once again.
Excellent atmosphere
The point of this game was to raise money for both program’s rosters, and filling three-quarters of Monmouth’s 4,100-seat arena has to be considered a success. Plus Seton Hall had a pregame dinner for 300 boosters beforehand. Pirate fans probably outnumbered Monmouth’s faithful, although the Hawks’ student section turned out in force and was heard.
Overall, there was a lot of juice in the building for October. It’s possible this will become an annual event. If this was a test run, it certainly seems like an event worth revisiting.
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Seton Hall basketball edges Monmouth in exhibition on Brown 3-pointer