By Ray Floriani (@rfloriani)
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — Seton Hall built an early double-digit lead Tuesday, and never looked back.
The host Pirates defeated Mercyhurst, 63-37, in the opener for both teams. The game at Walsh Gymnasium started the season, as well as a four-game homestand for Seton Hall.
Points of Emphasis:
Defense and pressure: During interviews leading up to the season, Seton Hall coach Tony Bozzella said the team’s identity would be in its defense. Seton Hall pressured Mercyhurst in both the full and half-court. In the first four minutes of the contest, the visiting Lakers struggled to find offensive continuity, as evidenced by two shot clock violations.
“We turned the ball over way too much,” Mercyhurst coach Erin Mills-Reid said. “Turn it over 30 times and it’s tough to win any game. They are athletic and bigger, but we need to be better at taking care of the ball. Their pressure concerned us and we knew they would take away the three, so we tried to establish in the paint, but they made it difficult.”
In guards we trust: Ari Woodard of Seton Hall led all scorers with a career-high 22 points.
“Today was my day,” the sophomore guard said Tuesday. “I have been working on shots outside of practice, and it paid off.”
Bozzella praised the work of his two lead guards, the aforementioned Woodard and Saniyah King, a junior.
“We have two real good ones, Saniyah and Woodard,” he said. “They come to practice every day. They don’t miss practice or anything we do. We believe in them and they believe in us. They are only going to get better and I wouldn’t trade our point guards for anyone in the country. They are wonderful people and I love coaching them.”
Don’t trust the scoreboard: Seton Hall enjoyed a 96-57 advantage in offensive efficiency. They held Mercyhurst to 14 second-half points. To Bozzella, there were other issues, serious issues that weighed on him.
“This was one of most depressing offensive outputs in my 14 years here,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you what we were running, the amount of shots we couldn’t take, wouldn’t take. We’re not going to win many games playing offense that way. It’s discouraging.”
“We spent a lot of time going over our plays, and not running them is very discouraging. We were not tough mentally. We worked on the press-breaker all week against guys 6’4” size and sliced through it. (Mercyhurst) is disciplined and well-coached, and how we played was embarrassing. If you want to play like that, just stay home.”
The standard: A concerted and strong effort is what is expected. There are no trophies for going all out. In Bozzella’s program, that is what is expected.
“Our coaching staff puts in hours of work and we watch film and do everything,” he said. “The effort is fine, but that’s the standard. Working, that’s what we are supposed to do. Our standard is (Savannah) Catalon playing on one leg, and our point guards. That’s the standard of our program.”
Final notes: Going in, Mills-Reid’s goal was to hold Seton Hall under 65 points.
“We held them to 63,” she said. “What I liked was our team ‘s ability to keep working. A few times, Seton Hall got ahead in transition, but we hustled back. That’s our culture.”
The Hall defense forced 30 turnovers while enjoying a 31-8 advantage in points off turnovers. Still. Bozzella pointed a few things that needed to be addressed.
“We let number 10 (Cici Hernandez) get open a few times,” he noted.
A deadly outside shooter, Hernandez finished with nine points but hit only one of five from three.
“We didn’t get the memo on number 7 (Lauren Filien),” Bozzella added.
Filien led Mercyhurst in scoring with nine points, hitting three from beyond the arc in the third period.
Seton Hall shot 45 percent from the field, Mercyhurst hit 28 percent of its attempts. Mercyhurst held a 31-30 rebounding advantage. Hernandez, a 5’6” junior guard, led all rebounders with nine.
Mercyhurst trailed 33-23 at halftime, and began the third period with turnovers on each of its first four possessions. At that juncture, Seton Hall increased the lead to 14 and never looked back. The final period saw the Lakers hit one field goal, scoring just four points.
Mercyhurst returns home to host Penn State Beaver on Thursday. Seton Hall will entertain Indiana State on Friday. The Sycamores dropped a decision at Northern Illinois on Monday, and are coached by Marc Mitchell. The veteran mentor won a Division III national championship at FDU-Madison before turning around the program at Saint Peter’s, taking the Peacocks to the MAAC championship game in 2021. Bozzella warned not to take Indiana State lightly.
“They are quick and confident,” he said. “If we played a league game like we did (Tuesday), we would have lost by 50 and I don’t mean just against UConn. Anybody.”
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