Courtesy: Princeton Athletic CommunicationsEugene Harvey scored a game-high 20 points and Seton Hall used a 17-3 run in a 10-minute span surrounding halftime to take control on the way to a 65-55 victory over Princeton in a men's basketball game played at Jadwin Gymnasium Wednesday night.
Seton Hall, which improved to 6-0 in 2007-08 after its first visit to Jadwin Gym since 1987, led just 23-21 after Princeton's Noah Savage scored in the lane with 3:36 left in the first half. But the Pirates would score the final eight points of the half, including a pair of layups by Brian Laing after Tiger turnovers, to lead by 10 at the break.
After Savage scored from the right baseline 20 seconds into the second half to pull the Tigers (2-4) back within eight, Seton Hall scored nine of the next 10 points to begin to pull away. Harvey had six points in that run, and Paul Gause's three-pointer from the right wing with 13:15 left put the Pirates ahead 40-24.
"We felt like Seton Hall gets a lot of offense from turnovers and offensive rebounds," said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson. "We did a good job on the latter but had too many giveaways, especially in the first half."
The Tigers had 10 of their 14 turnovers in the first 20 minutes, leading to 12 first-half points off turnovers for the Pirates. The rebounding edge was just slight for Seton Hall at 29-27.
Princeton would get its deficit back to single digits in the final two minutes thanks to Savage, who drilled three deep three-point shots in a 34-second span to pull the Tigers within 61-53 with 59 seconds on the clock. But Laing made two free throws for Seton Hall after that and Princeton couldn't score on the other end.
Both Savage and Kyle Koncz had 15 points to lead Princeton, while sophomore center Zach Finley had 14 points and a career-high 11 rebounds. Finley's performance was the first "double-double" for a Princeton player since Judson Wallace '05 had 12 points and 10 rebounds at Duke on Jan. 5, 2005.
"We have put together some good stretches in games but not an entire 40 minutes," said Koncz, who also had four rebounds. "Seton Hall has a good team that took advantage of our mistakes.
Harvey added four assists, three rebounds and three steals for Seton Hall, which last played at Jadwin on Dec. 15, 1987. Laing, the Big East's leading scorer heading into the game, had 12 of his 14 points in the first half and also had a team-high nine rebounds. Gause had all 12 of his points in the second half for the Pirates, off to their best start since the 1988-89 season.
Princeton, which never led, shot just 6 for 18 from behind the three-point arc. Seton Hall shot 53% for the game (24 for 45), including 56% (14 for 25) in the first half.
The Tigers play at Rutgers Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. The teams will be meeting for the 114th time in Princeton's most-played non-conference rivalry.
