Carrington’s 41 lift Hall to résumé-boosting win
Around this time last season Seton Hall was riding the hot hand of a talented lead guard, punching its ticket to the NCAA Tournament by beating one ranked team after another.
Isaiah Whitehead is in the NBA now, but Khadeen Carrington, another toughminded Brooklyn guard, is still around, and he put on a performance Wednesday night better than any Whitehead produced a year ago.
“He gave me a little flashback,” fellow junior Desi Rodriguez joked. “I though that was Isaiah on the court today.”
Carrington scored a careerhigh 41 points — the most by any player in the Big East this season — along with seven assists, five rebounds, four steals, and just one turnover in 38 minutes. His outburst keyed Seton Hall’s résumé-building 87-81 victory over No. 20 Creighton in front of 6,637 at Prudential Center.
The biggest shot of the evening was Carrington’s running left-handed bank shot, as he nearly fell to the court, giving Seton Hall (16-9, 6-7 Big East) a three-point lead with 41 seconds left. He added six clutch free throws, and with Creighton (21-5, 8-5) trying to roll the ball up court to save time, he dove for a loose ball, recovered it, and threw down an exclamation-point slam.
“That was the best game I’ve seen him play from an allaround standpoint,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said.
He had plenty of help from the Pirates’ other three core juniors. Rodriguez scored 18 points and Angel Delgado got the better of Creighton’s po- tential lottery pick, Justin Patton, producing a double-double of 17 points and 17 rebounds. Even hobbled forward Ismael Sanogo, returning from a right ankle injury that caused him to miss the previous two games, delivered his trademark defense and hustle plays.
“They really brought it emotionally tonight for all 40 minutes,” Willard said.
But it was Carrington, coming off a shaky effort in Saturday’s loss to St. John’s, who carried the Pirates. After that defeat, he told Willard: “Don’t worry. I’ll get it back.”
Carrington backed up his big talk, making 10-of-15 shots from the field and sinking 18of-22 free throws, the kind of efficient, under-control game Willard has wanted from him. The two have talked a lot about Carrington transition from being Robin to Whitehead’s Batman last year, to taking over the spotlight.
“He definitely upgraded from Robin to Batman,” Sanogo said.
Early on, Carrington sent a message to his teammates of the game’s importance by diving for a loose ball. He backed that up with long jump shots, and smooth drives to the hoop, refusing to let the Pirates lose. And he ended it with another dive and a dunk.
“Sometimes, Coach thinks I play too cool,” Carrington said. “But before the game, I told the guys, every little thing that we need to do, if we didn’t do it before, we got to do it now. That means boxing out, diving on the floor.
“I’m one of the leaders on the team, so why not me?”