Seton Hall Prep basketball team goes 1-1 in the state tournament to finish fine 20-7 season

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The Seton Hall Prep basketball team competed in the NJSIAA Non-Public “A” North state tournament last week.

The seventh-seeded Pirates hosted 10th-seeded Oratory and defeated the Rams, 76-41, at Frank J. Tracey Gymnasium on March 4 in the first round. Mike Curran led the scoring with 16 points, eight rebounds and six steals, while Gary Hinds scored 10 points with six rebounds; Giye Jenkins, a West Orange resident, had nine points, four rebounds and five assists; and Cole McGonigal had eight points.

The Pirates traveled to Jersey City to take on St. Peter’s Prep on March 6 in the quarterfinal round. The Pirates lost a hard-fought game, 55-49, to make their final record to 20-7. Mason Morial led the Pirates with 18 points and three assists, while Jenkins scored 14 points with four assists; and Curran scored nine points with six rebounds and three assists.

Following the game, SHP head coach Kevin Williams said, “I told the team that the game we just played could have been played in about a week in the North final because I think that we are two of the better teams in the bracket. I thought that we defended really well. We need to shoot the ball to succeed. We didn’t make a high percentage of shots today.” About the season, Williams said, “We started the season 2-5 and we could have gone away and packed it in and ended up .500, but we didn’t. We played in the toughest conference and county from top to bottom. Today, we went down by 11 and the kid’s could have packed it in, but they kept scraping and with a minute left, we were still in the game.”