Chaunce Jenkins paced his new team with 19 points and six rebounds and Seton Hall survived an upset bid by visiting Saint Peter’s 57-53 on Monday in Newark, N.J.
The Old Dominion transfer went 9-for-10 at the foul line and combined with fellow Pirates newcomer Prince Aligbe to power a go-ahead 10-0 run in the home stretch of both teams’ season opener.
The Peacocks had a 50-46 lead with 7:39 left but then went scoreless for the next 5:20, putting up just four shots in that span.
Seton Hall’s Garwey Dual broke up a pass, kept it from going out of bounds and passed it to Jenkins at center court. Jenkins then sent an alley-oop pass to Aligbe, whose layup at the five-minute mark put Princeton ahead for good at 51-50.
That sequence marked the only field goal in a Seton Hall run that featured eight free throws. The Pirates outscored the Peacocks 24-16 at the foul line.
Aligbe, a transfer from Boston College, had 10 points and Dylan Addae-Wusu added eight points and six rebounds for Seton Hall (1-0). The Pirates won despite shooting just 31.8 percent from the floor.
Freshman Bryce Eaton started for Saint Peter’s (0-1) and scored 12 points with six rebounds. Armoni Zeigler had eight points and 11 boards.
Seton Hall was down 14-12 when Jenkins’ fastbreak layup launched a 12-1 run. Jenkins and Addae-Wusu made 3-pointers to cap that stretch and David Tubek soon added five points to make it a 29-18 game with 4:21 left in the half.
Saint Peter’s whittled the deficit to 32-27 by halftime and tied it at 35 in the opening minutes of the second half. Jenkins answered with a triple for the Pirates, but the Peacocks struck back and took the first of two brief leads on Eaton’s fastbreak layup.
Addae-Wusu’s tough three-point play put Seton Hall ahead 45-44 with 9:12 to go, but after two Saint Peter’s free throws, freshman Jakai Sanders nailed a 3-pointer to put the Peacocks ahead by four with 8:04 remaining.
–Field Level Media
