Sports

Pirates survive Seawolves in NIT opener

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ – Even if the players were confident, the Pirates gave their fans one Hall of a scare on Tuesday night.

Seton Hall hung on to beat Stony Brook 63-61 in the opening round of the NIT at Walsh Gymnasium. It was the Pirates’ first on-campus home game this season.

The crowd of 1,674 was able to let out a collective sigh of relief after Stony Brook’s Tommy Brenton (four points, 13 rebounds) missed a put-back attempt at the last second. Despite the dramatics, the Pirates were confident heading into the game’s final possession.

“I knew we were going to get a stop, I had faith in the guys,” Seton Hall senior guard Jordan Theodore said. “And you saw what happened, we got the stop. It came a little close but we got the W and that’s all that matters.”

Two days after being snubbed by the NCAA tournament committee, the Pirates, led by Theodore (21 Points) and senior forward Herb Pope (20 points), sent a message to the NIT field of 32 that they would be a tough out no matter what tournament they were in.

“Obviously we’re over the NCAA tournament,” Theodore said. “It was tough that night, but the next day you’ve got to move on and come in here and get ready to beat Stony Brook. The mentality is to win the championship. Now we’re trying to win the NIT”

Seton Hall’s win wasn’t as dominant as expected considering it earned a No.1 seed in the tournament. The Pirates (21-12) and Seawolves (22-10) traded blows for the majority of the second half before a 7-0 run gave Seton Hall the lead for good. The close call didn’t faze the players.

“I don’t think it was a wake-up call,” Pope said. “We knew it was going to be tough, everybody who makes the postseason had tremendous years and it doesn’t matter with seeding, when you’re in a tournament it’s win or go home.”

The Seawolves’ front line of Dallis Joyner and Brenton combined for 22 rebounds, including an 11-2 advantage on the offensive glass. Joyner (14 points, nine rebounds) fouled out with 1:43 remaining in the game.

“They destroyed us on rebounding, that was a worry from the start” Kevin Willard said. “We haven’t been a great rebounding team all year, it’s a concern. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit for being scrappy and fighting hard, the kid Brenton was tremendous all night.”

Seton Hall stormed out to an early 12-2 lead, capitalizing on nine early turnovers by the Seawolves and forcing Stony Brook’s all-time leading scorer Bryan Dougher to the bench after he committed two fouls in the game’s opening minutes. The Pirates limited Dougher to 12 points in 32 minutes.

“[Stony Brook] is a different team when [Dougher] doesn’t score,” Willard said. “When he scores and gets a lot of easy shots, they’re really tough to beat. We wanted to make him work for all of his shots.”

Defensively, Pirates sophomore Fuquan Edwin led all players with six steals. Edwin finished the 2011-12 season leading the Big East averaging 2.9 steals per game.

Seton Hall remained undefeated against Stony Brook, improving to 3-0. The last time the schools met was in 2002, when the Pirates thrashed the Seawolves 71-48.

Tuesday night’s victory also marks the first NIT win for Seton Hall since the 1955-56 season, when the Pirates defeated Marquette 96-78.

“This university has great tradition,” Willard said. “But you start going through some of the numbers and you see it’s been a while since we’ve been able to sustain and that’s our goal.”

asulla-heffinger@nypost.com