Lacking ‘magic wand,’ Seton Hall takes on NJIT

Seton Hall has done a fine job this season defensively but has struggled on offense.The Pirates are still reeling from their latest loss as they prepare to take on another in-state foe when NJIT makes the crosstown bus trip for Wednesday night’s game in Newark, N.J.Seton Hall (4-4) fell 63-51 to previously winless Monmouth on Saturday, the Pirates’ third loss to a mid-major opponent this season. Although Seton Hall allowed Monmouth rising star Abdi Bashir Jr. to drop 28 points, only five other Hawks scored.The Pirates rank fifth in the country in scoring defense, yielding an average of 56.6 points per game. Yet their 57.3 scoring average is near the bottom of Division I and easily the worst output by a power-conference program. They’ve made 38.5 percent of their field-goal attempts this season, including just 39.1 percent on 2-pointers, plus 59.2 percent from the foul line.”I can’t just have a magic wand. We just gotta continue to keep fighting,” Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway said. “It’s a long season still, right? I know we lost some games and it’s early, but it’s a long season and listen, I’m a fighter. I’m not giving up, my team’s not gonna give up.”Chaunce Jenkins (13.9 ppg) and Isaiah Coleman (11.1) are Seton Hall’s double-digit scorers. The Pirates’ top four scorers all shoot 42.9 percent or better from 3-point range, so that could be a path for them to remedy their scoring woes.

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