Senior forward Tyrese Samuel scored 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds as Seton Hall used a quick start to roll to a 76-51 victory over Butler on Saturday night before a crowd of about 8,000 at Prudential Center in Newark.
“Desperate for a win,” Samuel, who was 9-for-11 from the field, told the Asbury Park Press after the victory. “That’s pretty much what motivated me and motivated all our team.”
Guard Kadary Richmond added 11 points, nine assists and eight rebounds for the Pirates (9-8, 2-4 Big East), who led by 18 at halftime. Seton Hall forward Tray Jackson also provided a lift off the bench, scoring 15 points.
Jayden Taylor scored 14 points off the bench to lead the Bulldogs (10-7, 2-4).
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It has been an up-and-down season for Shaheen Holloway’s Pirates. After scoring an impressive 88-66 blowout win over rival St. John’s Red Storm on New Year’s Eve, Seton Hall stumbled in its following outing, falling 83-61 to the Creighton Bluejays.
After the Creighton loss, Holloway said he called on certain players to step it up.
“I challenged a couple of guys,” said Holloway, who played his starters for almost 13 minutes to start the game before making his first substitution. “A couple of guys stepped up, the guys I challenged, I thought they played well tonight. So it was a little bit of both, a little bit of me and a lot of them.
“It’s an older group, man. I don’t need to be getting on them as much as if they were a younger group, but we needed to have a meeting. We had it, and now we’re kind of moving forward.”
