Maybe it was the time off, or the hard-earned lessons finally being learned. Or maybe Seton Hall just has Georgetown’s number. Whatever the cause, the Pirates gladly will take the result — an 82-67 rout that broke their losing skid and brought them their first season sweep of the Hoyas in over a decade.
The backcourt of Fuquan Edwin and Sterling Gibbs carried the Pirates (14-12, 5-8 Big East) to a laugher at the Prudential Center. They snapped a three-game losing skid, won for just the fourth time in a dozen games and did it in shockingly easy fashion against Georgetown (15-11, 6-8).
“We haven’t really finished out games the way that we wanted to the last couple games, so we wanted to make sure we responded to their run,’’ Gibbs said. “We knew we needed this one, so we wanted to come out and play hard.’’
Edwin had a game-high 21 points, while Gibbs had 18 points, seven assists and no turnovers. Eugene Teague — benched last game because of his attitude, along with Brian Oliver — added a dozen points and seven boards.
When it was over, Seton Hall torched the Big East’s top field goal defense for 55.1 percent shooting.
Seton Hall earned its first regular-season sweep of Georgetown since 2002-03 — just their third since the formation of the Big East — and climbed within a half-game of the Hoyas for seventh in the league standings. The Pirates did it at home, where they had been just 1-5 in Big East play and dropped three straight.
“We have a goal as a team over the last six games: This was a good start to it,” said coach Kevin Willard, who praised his four seniors — including Oliver and Teague — for leading strong practices since their last game a week prior. “Our first goal was to play better at home. We felt like we haven’t done that. This was a good start.’’
Seton Hall’s 68-67 heartbreaker against St. John’s last Thursday was its third one-point loss this Big East season, but the Pirates may be slowly learning how to win. After having to erase a double-digit second-half deficit to best Georgetown on Jan. 18, on Thursday they drilled the Hoyas.
“I thought I was a bit too negative and I just had to focus on being more positive with myself and my teammates.,” Teague said. “Just after a bad loss [not] having a bad attitude. I feel like we can go on a nice little run right now. We’ve just got to believe in ourselves.’’
Clinging to a 15-13 lead after a jumper by D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera (20 points), the Pirates went on a 10-2 run capped by Gibbs’ layup for a 25-15 cushion. After the Pirates saw their lead cut to 37-34, they ran off eight straight points to pad it back to 45-34 with 15:33 to play. The run swelled to 17-4 by the time Jaren Sina (10 points, four assists, one turnover in a rare start) hit a 3-pointer for a 54-38 cushion.
“Our defense was poor,” Hoyas coach John Thompson III said. “They got every shot they wanted. They got easy shots.
“I want to credit them for their execution. Our defense was bad, but they made us look bad.’’