Seton Hall has done a fine job this season defensively but has struggled on offense.
The Pirates are still reeling from their latest loss as they prepare to take on another in-state foe when NJIT makes the crosstown bus trip for Wednesday night’s game in Newark, N.J.
Seton Hall (4-4) fell 63-51 to previously winless Monmouth on Saturday, the Pirates’ third loss to a mid-major opponent this season. Although Seton Hall allowed Monmouth rising star Abdi Bashir Jr. to drop 28 points, only five other Hawks scored.
The Pirates rank fifth in the country in scoring defense, yielding an average of 56.6 points per game. Yet their 57.3 scoring average is near the bottom of Division I and easily the worst output by a power-conference program. They’ve made 38.5 percent of their field-goal attempts this season, including just 39.1 percent on 2-pointers, plus 59.2 percent from the foul line.
“I can’t just have a magic wand. We just gotta continue to keep fighting,” Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway said. “It’s a long season still, right? I know we lost some games and it’s early, but it’s a long season and listen, I’m a fighter. I’m not giving up, my team’s not gonna give up.”
Chaunce Jenkins (13.9 ppg) and Isaiah Coleman (11.1) are Seton Hall’s double-digit scorers. The Pirates’ top four scorers all shoot 42.9 percent or better from 3-point range, so that could be a path for them to remedy their scoring woes.
NJIT (1-8) has had a difficult start to the season, with a mix of close losses and blowouts. After the Highlanders got their first win Nov. 27 against Morehead State, they fell 80-68 at UMass on Sunday.
Tariq Francis scored 24 points against UMass and Sebastian Robinson added 14. That backcourt duo accounts for more than half of NJIT’s scoring on the year: Francis averages 19.7 points per game (to go with 4.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists), and Robinson adds 11.8 ppg.
Wednesday’s game will pit Holloway against former colleague Grant Billmeier, who is in his second season as head coach of NJIT. Holloway and Billmeier overlapped on Seton Hall’s staff from 2010-14 and 2015-18.
“I haven’t been back to the Prudential Center (the Pirates’ home) since I was last on staff there,” Billmeier said in the preseason. “Lot of really good moments. But once the ball goes up, it’s all business.”
