December 18th, 2016: Rider at Seton Hall

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Seton Hall built up an 11-point halftime lead, watched it all dissipate in the third quarter, and recovered in the fourth to claim an 89-81 win over Rider. JaQuan Jackson and Kaela Hilaire each had 19 points to pace the Pirates. Kamila Hoskova had 14 to lead the Broncs.

For train travails, passive posts, classic movie film references, unity, earnest ROTC cadets, troublemaking kids, and long passes, join your intrepid and sated blogger after the jump.

Good morning, South Orange! It is too early for this, but here we are anyway, despite the best efforts of the Port Authority's Trans-Hudson train service.

Seriously, I am not joking, we waited 20 minutes at Journal Square for the Newark train and then the conductor took the train out of the station in the wrong direction for a good thousand feet. Much WTF was had by all. We ended up dodging wildcatting freelancers to catch a cab at Newark-Penn Station.

Shoutout to the Rider player with the ferociously magenta hair that almost matches her team colors. (Yeliz Dogan, for the record.)

The ROTC team presenting colors today is working very diligently, but they need a bit of work on their synchronization.

Is it a bad sign that the strength coach is injured?

Wonderful anthem. I approve this message. Rider did what seemed to be a hybrid of the linked arms for solidarity and the raised fist, which is very cool.

At halftime, Seton Hall is up 51-40, but Rider kep it tight for the first sixteen minutes or so. The polar vortex must have been the harbinger of the Minnesota kids' shots' arrival. Claire Lundberg has 14 points, including four threes, in the first half, and would have had a fifth if Jordan Molyneaux hadn't committed an unnecessary offensive foul. Rider has a couple of really good freshmen that I'm impressed with.

Rider also has a large contingent of fans, which makes sense- it's not that far, even by train.

The band gauntlet has been thrown down. Seton Hall's band did "The Pretender"- one of the Mighty Sound of the Red Storm's signature pieces.

As Seton Hall comes out of rthe second half, they're doing their stretches all over again. This is unusual. I don't think Tony was happy with them, and their response coming out of the half was... less than promising.

We shouldn't have to scrap and fight and come back multiple times against a team like Rider. Rider is a very good MAAC team, and this might even be their year to be MAAC mommas, but we have the talent. What we don't seem to have is the offensive execution, and that worries me. It's the middle of December; people should be at least somewhat familiar with the plays by now, and yet there are too many possessions where it looks like either the play broke down or players are falling into the habit of calling their own number.

I was really surprised that Tracey Goodman and Johnnah Johnson didn't see time in the second half. I thought they both did well in their roles. Johnson was solid on the glass and efficient in the paint. Goodman had a sweet outside jumper that we couldn't defend, and got very physical with Lubirdia Gordon. Yeliz Dogan cut well to the basket, and she'll be even more effective for the Broncs when she stops giving in to the temptation to help on defense and thus leave her man open.

Lexi Posset got the second half start over Taylor Wentzel, and in a reversal of the usual way these things go, set a nice pick for the center Duggan for a midrange jumper. She took a lot of shots, but they weren't necessarily the best shots for the situation. Safie Tolusso mostly came in as a situational shooter, especially near the end of the game; her subbing became less situational when the foul trouble started to hit the Broncs.

Kamila Hoskova had a knack for hitting shots near the end of the shot clock. She drove aggressively. Taylor Wentzel was good defensively- her defensive stance with her hands out wide was almost textbook. Robin Perkins was unafraid to shoot- she was their primary distance threat. There was a foul she disagreed with rather strenuously.

I was very impressed with Stella Johnson. Somehow I managed to resist the urge to belt out "STELLAAAAAA!" while she was at the free throw line, so take a moment to applaud my newfound maturity. She moves really well both with and without the ball, and she pounced on sloppy Pirate passes. I can't believe she's only a freshman- she's great. (And ooooh, I want to see her against Alexis Lewis from Iona. Dis gun be gud.) (The perils of following all the conferences.) Julia Duggan was solid for the Broncs, finishing inside and making space for her teammates.

Rider is a lot better than I was expecting. They've brought in good talent that works well together. If they gel even a little bit more, they'll be very dangerous. The coach just has to trust in her freshmen a little bit more.

In her brief appearances, Skyler Snider did some serious work on the glass. Her offense still needs some refinement, but I love the work she does rebounding and on defense. I'd like to see her get some more minutes, and there were opportunities (Shadeen Samuels and Jayla Jones-Pack were both unavailable due to injuries). Jordan Molyneaux was surprisingly effective at the line; she needs to work on her angle of approach to the basket to stop hitting the bottom of the backboard, and gain more confidence in her off hand, though. But a really good game for her overall. Lubirdia Gordon was big inside- driving into her is not a good life decision if you're an offensive player- and hit baskets when we needed them.

Kaity Healy stabilized the team on both ends of the floor- I can't put my finger on it, but it seemed like things were calmer when she was running point than when Kaela or TT were. Deja Winters was quiet- looked for her shot and had one nice defensive play- but we could have used more out of her.

Kaela Hilaire drove hard, but the free throw numbers aren't related to that- she was the person with the ball at the end of the game when Rider was fouling to extend the game. I feel like she made the choice to call her own number more than was perhaps called for by the flow of the offense- she was forcing a lot of her shots. So was JaQuan Jackson. Maybe I'm bad luck for Quanny- every time I've seen her, she's had a game of questionable shot selection. She was hitting late, which fueled her rebounding and her willingness to hit the passing lanes. I find it fascinating how she comes together as a complete player when her shot starts falling, and is otherwise an offensive disaster. LaTecia Smith was really forcing her offense. Do not shoot into three players. This is a bad plan. I do love her rebounding, though. Somehow she has the length and the ups to do things on the glass no guard of her size should be able to do.

Claire Lundberg spent the first half on fire and the second half playing scared. Seton Hall started in a small lineup and went bigger in the second half; strangely enough, that didn't benefit her. She was exploiting mismatches and defensive switches that she wasn't getting in the second half. Martha Kuderer had a couple of nice plays, including a nifty basket off a sweet pass from Kaela, but she seemed to be playing back a little. She took what she was given, but she didn't seem to want to do more.

LOL of the day: TT throws a pass. It is not an accurate pass. It goes out of bounds and smacks Kat Egan right in the head. Cue up, "Oh, come on, TT, hasn't Kat suffered enough?"

Tony, I understand your passion, and I understand the urge to yell at everyone for being in a dogfight with Rider. I'm just saying, yelling at the person actively shooting free throws is maybe not the best game plan.

I don't know what happened, or who said what to whom, but there was a kid next to the passageway to/from the locker rooms, on the Seton Hall side, booing every Pirate free throw. He and his mother were not getting along with the Seton Hall fans there, and near the end of the game they were escorted out of the gym by security.

Today was an autograph day, so since we were waiting for our ride anyway, we said hi to the ladies. I have to play nice. Next game is Awkward Bowl I of the year. I don't think either team wanted Seton Hall to go into it on a low note. We'll see how STJ goes into it.

Survive. Advance. That's how we roll.