Seton Hall hangs loss on Pitt
NEWARK, N.J. — Four years after taking the Seton Hall job, coach Bobby Gonzalez now has a marquee win that is going to make people take notice.
Herb Pope had 19 points and nine rebounds and Seton Hall posted its biggest win in Gonzalez's turbulent tenure, 64-61 over No. 9 Pittsburgh on Sunday in a game in which Pirates' leading scorer Jeremy Hazell was limited nine points and 16 minutes by foul problems.
"For us to win with Jeremy on the bench with nine points, it shows we are becoming a good team," Gonzalez said after his first win over Pittsburgh (15-4, 5-2 Big East). "We're also a team that can win different ways. It was the 80s the other night versus Louisville and today it was the 60s. That's a good sign that you are becoming a good team."
The last time Seton Hall (12-6, 3-4 Big East) beat a top-10 team was March 3, 2006, when they also beat then-No. 8 Pittsburgh, 65-61.
Since Gonzalez took over the following season, The Hall had beaten a couple of teams ranked in the teens. Gonzalez wasn't aware that this was his biggest win at the school until sports information director Matt Sweeney told him after the game.
"It's a great win for me personally, a great win for our program and a great win for our team," Gonzalez said. "Hopefully it gets a little national attention, even though it's early in the year. There was this perception out there of, 'What's wrong with Seton Hall?' They have good talent and good expectations, but their record is not that good."
With the latest two wins and near misses against West Virginia, Syracuse, Temple and Connecticut, the Pirates have a chance of making a run at the NCAA tournament.
Jeff Robinson tallied 15 points and hit two clutch free throws with 12 seconds to give the Pirates their final margin.
Ashton Gibbs had 23 points, including all 14 of his free throws, to lead Pittsburgh, but he missed two tying 3-point attempts in the final 5 seconds.
Jermaine Dixon added 11 points for the Panthers, who lost their second straight for the first time since February 2008. No. 12 Georgetown knocked off Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
"It's a disappointing loss. We didn't play well enough to win," Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon said. "Our execution, both offensively and defensively, wasn't good enough to win. Our turnovers were too high. Those are things that are going to get you beat. We made bad decisions with the ball. We've now had a couple of bad games now."
The story of the first half and the game was the Pirates' ability to play without Hazell, the conference's second leading scorer with a 23-point average. He picked up three fouls in the opening seven minutes, including a technical, and got his fourth in the opening seconds of the second half.
The Pirates, however, found a way to win without him, using their defense. They limited Pittsburgh to 35 percent shooting from the field, forced 20 turnovers and basically beat the Panthers at their own slowdown game.
"This is a stepping stone for us to learn and build from this, and try to grow," said Pope.
