NEWARK, N.J. — Seton Hall got 23 points from Kadary Richmond scored 23 and a lock down defensive effort helped the Pirates stun the No. 5 UConn Huskies on Wednesday night in the Big East Conference opener.
Richmond also had eight steals, Dre Davis added 17 points, and Al-Amir Dawes scored 11 points for Seton Hall (8-4). Big man Jaden Bediako added 10 points, nine rebounds and three blocks, all the while clogging up the middle and making UConn center Donovan Clingan work for every point.
Defensively, the Pirates held UConn to just 4-of-21 from three point range and forced the Huskies to commit a season-high 17 turnovers.
Tristen Newton led the Huskies with 16 points.
The loss was a disappointing one for UConn (10-2) and head coach Danny Hurley, who had their three-game win streak snapped.
“Really, just really stunned by how unprepared I had these guys for a tough physical conference game,” said Hurley. "Credit, (Seton Hall coach) Shaheen (Holloway) Credit, Seton Hall. You know, they just kind of poked us there in Big East Conference fashion. So just a really, really disappointing effort.”
Trailing 20-10 with 8:47 left in the first half, the Pirates closed out the half with a 24-9 run that featured Davis scoring eight points and seven straight at one point by Richmond.
With the score tied at 27, Dawes scored four points and Davis added three to give Seton Hall a 34-29 halftime lead.
UConn played without Clingan for the final 16:33 of the game, who left the game with a sprained right ankle. The sophomore finished with 14 points and seven rebounds on the night.
The Pirates never trailed in the second half and even maintained a double-digit lead for nearly the final 8 minutes of the game.
Villanova 68, No. 12 Creighton 66 (OT)
OMAHA, Neb. — Villanova's Eric Dixon buried the go-ahead 3-pointer with 28 seconds left in overtime as Villanova held off No. 12 Creighton 68-66 on Wednesday in the Big East opener.
Dixon finished the night with 32 points to lead the Wildcats.
Trey Alexander scored all eight of Creighton's points in overtime to finish with 16 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Baylor Scheierman also had 16 points and Ryan Kalkbrenner added 14.
Creighton (9-3) led by double digits until about the midway point of the second half when the Blue Jays hit a cold spell. The Wildcats began to chip away at the lead, tying the game at 56-all with under four minutes to go.
In overtime, Alexander sunk two free throws to give Creighton a 66-65 lead with 42 seconds left. After a timeout, Villanova (8-4) drew up a play to have Dixon come off a screen and take a pass from Jordan Longino. Dixon got the ball in the corner and hit his game-winner as Kalkbrenner defended him.
The Blue Jays missed two chances to tie or win the game, as Scheierman missed the front end of a one-and-one with seven seconds left, and he missed a long 3-pointer at the buzzer.
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