Seton Hall University men’s basketball team captures NIT championship

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The Seton Hall University men’s basketball team captured the 2024 National Invitational Tournament championship, as Pirates defeated a very strong Indiana State team, 79-77, on Thursday, April 4, at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Dre Davis, who hails from Indianapolis, scored the game-winning layup with 16 seconds remaining.

The win gives the Pirates, who ended the game on a 9-0 run over the final 2:38, their second NIT title in program history and first since 1953. Al-Amir Dawes, of Newark, capped off his strong tournament with a game-high 24 points, while Kadary Richmond, of Brooklyn, N.Y., finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds. 

Orange native Elijah Hutchins-Everett, a 6-11 junior center, had 4 points on 2-of-4 shooting from the field with two assists and one rebound in 15 minutes played.

Richmond, Dawes and Davis were all named to the NIT All-Tournament Team and Dawes was named the NIT’s Most Outstanding Player.

Seton Hall led, 16-10, with 13:49 left in the first half as the Pirates found success capitalizing off of multiple Indiana State turnovers. The Sycamores would go on to rattle off 10 straight points to jump in front by three, 19-16, before an 11-3 run by the Pirates, including five consecutive free throws by Dawes, put The Hall back ahead, 27-22, with 8:06 to go before halftime.

A Davis three-pointer at the 3:30 mark in the first half gave the Pirates their largest lead of the game, 39-28, but the Sycamores would use a half-closing 11-0 run to tie the score up at 39-39. Despite the momentum switch in the Sycamores’ favor in the latter stages of the first 20 minutes, the Pirates came out strong in the second half, as Davis scored seven of The Hall’s first 12 points that gave the Pirates a nine-point lead, 51-42.

Indiana State made it a one-point game, 58-57, with 10:17 left when a Richmond layup, a defensive stop and a lefty layup from Dylan Addae-Wusu, of the Bronx, N.Y., pushed the Pirates’ lead to five, 62-57. 

A 12-5 run by the Sycamores gave them their first lead since the 10-minute mark in the first half and they would later lead by seven, 77-70, with 3:03 left in the game. That’s when the Pirates’ three captains — Dawes, Davis and Richmond —  took over the game. Richmond’s layup off of his own offensive rebounds with 2:38 left made it a five-point game before five-consecutive points were scored by Dawes, including an off-balance three-pointer that tied the score up at 77-77 with 1:05 to go. With under a minute left, the ball was Davis’ hands and his patented spin move in the lane put the Pirates in front for good at 79-77 with 16 seconds remaining. 

On the final possession of the game, a block by Bediako on an Indiana State shot beyond the three-point line helped seal the NIT championship for the Pirates. The Seton Hall defense held Indiana State scoreless over the last 3:03 and the Sycamores missed their last seven shots.

Hutchins-Everett, a product of Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut, averaged 3.5 points per game in his first year at SHU this season, shooting 35-of-72 from the field (.486 percentage) in 31 games. He played his first two years collegiately at Austin Peay in Tennessee.

Notes:

• This was Seton Hall’s second NIT championship in program history and its first since 1953.
• Seton Hall’s 25 wins this season is tied for the fourth-most in program history and the most since the Pirates’ 25-win Big East Conference Tournament championship season in 2015-16.
• Head coach Shaheen Holloway is now 6-0 in the city of Indianapolis with wins over Kentucky and Murray State in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, two road wins over Butler and two wins this year’s NIT over Georgia and Indiana State.
• Seton Hall has won five straight games at Hinkle Fieldhouse including eight of its last 10 contests.
• Dawes finished his career with 169 made three-pointers, which ranks 14th in program history.
• Dawes’ 91 made three-pointers this season is tied for the eighth-most in a single season in program history.
• Dawes finished with 12 20-point games this season and 20 in his career.

Richmond notched his eighth double-double of the season and the 11th of his career.

Photos Courtesy of Seton Hall University Athletics

  Seton Hall University