Seton Hall has everyone back, including the senior who now holds the school record for steals.
Georgetown is still short-handed, and it shows.
With Fuquan Edwin and Eugene Teague returning to the starting lineup, the Pirates won in the nation’s capital for the first time in 11 years. Edwin became the all-time Seton Hall steals champ and scored 19 of his 24 points in the second half Saturday in a 67-57 victory.
Coach Kevin Willard’s Pirates (11-7, 2-3 Big East) broke a three-game losing streak by rallying from a 10-point deficit. Coach John Thompson’s Hoyas (11-6, 3-3) didn’t score a field goal over the final 9:44 and blew a double-digit, second-half lead for the second straight game.
“I don’t want to make excuses for John, because I know he doesn’t make ’em,” Willard said. “But I know what it’s like to play without starters.”
Edwin has missed four games this season with a knee injury and came off the bench in Seton Hall’s previous game, a one-point loss at Marquette. Teague returned Saturday after missing four games with a concussion. Aaron Geramipoor is playing again after dealing with an ankle injury.
Edwin went 4 for 4 from 3-point range in the second half and finished with five steals to put his career total at 263, passing the previous school mark of 260 set by Dan Callandrillo from 1978-82.
“He’s been frustrated, the team’s been frustrated,” Willard said, “because we expect so much out of him. I started seeing this week in practice, his game’s started coming back a little bit.”
Edwin led the decisive 15-3 run, highlighted by a sequence in which he hit a 3-pointer that he celebrated by running backward with both arms in the air, then made a steal at the other end of the floor. He fouled out with 1:51 to play.
Willard said Edwin is about “90 percent” healthy.
“You know, it’s still a little bit of a struggle,” Edwin said, “just trying to get my wind back.”
Teague committed two offensive fouls in the first 2:18 of the game, but he scored nine of his 10 points in the second half. He also finished with nine rebounds for the Pirates, who had been 0-4 on the road against the Hoyas since an overtime victory on Jan. 29, 2003. Seton Hall hadn’t won in regulation at Georgetown since Jan. 8, 2000.
“Having Eugene back for us, it’s a difference-maker,” Willard said. “It’s hard to explain; we run so much stuff through him.”
Georgetown, meanwhile, lost at home for the first time this season and has yet to figure basketball life without Jabril Trawick and Joshua Smith. Trawick missed his third game with a broken jaw and isn’t expected to return for weeks, while Smith sat out for the fourth consecutive game for academic reasons, with no indication as to when he might return.
D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera scored 14 points, and Mikael Hopkins had 11 points and a career-high 15 rebounds for the Hoyas. Georgetown couldn’t hold a 17-point lead over Xavier on Wednesday, and against Seton Hall a 38-28 advantage early in the second half quickly evaporated.
“We have to adjust, adapt and change a lot of things — as a coaching staff, as a team — and we’ve got to go back and try to figure that out. We will,” Thompson said. “Second half, we’re undermanned, but that’s not an excuse. We have enough pieces where we can figure out how we have to continue to play differently with who we have.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.