Nov 3, 2025; Newark, New Jersey, USA; Seton Hall Pirates head coach Shaheen Holloway reacts during the first half against the Saint Peter’s Peacocks at Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Seton Hall and Southern California picked up significant results to begin the Maui Invitational.
Building on those successes will be paramount when the Pirates and Trojans meet in Tuesday’s semifinals of the tournament at Lahaina, Hawaii.
Seton Hall (6-0) recorded an 85-74 victory over No. 23 North Carolina State on Monday, handing the Wolfpack their first loss.
“A good win for us, a good win for our progress,” Pirates coach Shaheen Holloway said. “But you can’t get happy.”
Southern California (5-0) won its second close game in a row, edging Boise State 70-67 in the first round behind Rodney Rice’s 27 points. The Trojans enjoyed a 33-15 edge in 3-point scoring, with Rice connecting four times from beyond the arc.
Coach Eric Musselman said the Trojans expect a physically grueling matchup with Seton Hall.
“We’ve got to defensive rebound, for sure,” Musselman said, “especially with Seton Hall. They take on the personality of the head coach. They’re tough-minded.”
The Pirates can hit the boards. They’ve had four different players as their top rebounder so far. Najai Hines, who is Seton Hall’s seventh-leading scorer, leads the team in rebounds at an average of 6.3 per game.
Holloway said there were many good signs for the Pirates to embrace from their first-round victory, particularly how they began the second half.
“We just got to play our basketball,” he said. “We start playing the way I think we can play, I think we got a chance.”
It wasn’t just the offense, but what Seton Hall’s defense did to North Carolina State to help ignite the offense.
“We got some stops,” Holloway said. “We got some run-outs.”
Holloway said he knows that success can be fleeting, but defeating the Wolfpack should help the Pirates believe in themselves.
“I call this the marathon,” Holloway said. “This is part of the marathon for us.”
By defeating Boise State, Southern California improved to 3-4 all-time in games in the Maui Invitational. The Trojans have never won the tournament.
Southern Cal survived a three-overtime game against Troy before heading to Hawaii. Despite the nip-and-tuck nature of November games, there’s lots for Musselman to learn about his team.
“I’m still not sure what our go-to plays are,” he said.
–Field Level Media
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![Knicks and Nuggets Blow Big Leads: What Went Wrong in Game 2? | Deadspin.com Roughly 5,000 feet of elevation separate Denver and New York City.Still, gravity works the same regardless of where one stands. Just ask the NBA teams in both towns.“You get too high, and you get, I don’t want to say cocky, but feeling yourself,” Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said.That sensation went south on either side of the country Monday night.After squandering sizable leads that would have cemented commanding 2-0 advantages in their respective first-round playoff series, the Nuggets and Knicks now find themselves bracing for a fight.Should their opponents ultimately have their number, Denver and New York will look back with disdain on 19 and 14. Those were the Game 2 cushions the teams coughed up as the No. 3 seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference.“It’s a game we should’ve won,” Knicks guard Josh Hart said. “In the playoffs, we can’t give away games.”Be that as it may, the Knicks did just that against the Atlanta Hawks. They controlled the outcome for much of the night and took a 12-point edge into the fourth quarter after leading by as many as 14.Then New York shot 5-for-22 from the floor in the final 12 minutes compared to 10-for-15 for Atlanta. Fighting through vulgar chants from the Madison Square Garden faithful, Hawks star CJ McCullom scored six straight points down the stretch during one key sequence on the way to a game-high 32.“In that fourth quarter, you could tell [the Hawks] were playing with a level of desperation,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “There were four 50-50 balls, and they got three of the four. We always use that stat to gauge the level of aggression in a game. In that fourth quarter, their aggression stepped up.”New York’s melted at the same time. How many late possessions saw the Knicks pass or hold the ball around the perimeter before settling for subpar looks from 3-point range? The Knicks went 3-for-11 from deep as part of their flop.Denver led the Minnesota Timberwolves by 19 points early in the second quarter before crumbling. The Nuggets still were ahead by three points to start the fourth quarter but a combined 2-for-12 shooting effort from pillars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in the final 12 minutes took a toll.“I feel like we had the game in hand, and then we just didn’t make our shots,” Murray said.As with the Knicks and Hawks, the reversal of fortunes stemmed both from the hosts’ miscues and an outstanding effort from a visiting player, as Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards had 30 points.“Great leadership, positive,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “He recognized he needed to get into attack mode and get downhill a little bit more. He did that.”The Knicks and Nuggets no doubt sensed the need to amp up their own urgency as things started slipping away Monday.That neither could act upon it didn’t signal the end for either New York or Denver, of course. But now there’s unnecessary added weight for the climb back to the top. #Knicks #Nuggets #Blow #Big #Leads #Wrong #Game #Deadspin.com](https://i1.wp.com/lineup-publishing.s3.amazonaws.com/1776807037837?ssl=1 "Knicks and Nuggets Blow Big Leads: What Went Wrong in Game 2? | Deadspin.com Roughly 5,000 feet of elevation separate Denver and New York City.Still, gravity works the same regardless of where one stands. Just ask the NBA teams in both towns.“You get too high, and you get, I don’t want to say cocky, but feeling yourself,” Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said.That sensation went south on either side of the country Monday night.After squandering sizable leads that would have cemented commanding 2-0 advantages in their respective first-round playoff series, the Nuggets and Knicks now find themselves bracing for a fight.Should their opponents ultimately have their number, Denver and New York will look back with disdain on 19 and 14. Those were the Game 2 cushions the teams coughed up as the No. 3 seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference.“It’s a game we should’ve won,” Knicks guard Josh Hart said. “In the playoffs, we can’t give away games.”Be that as it may, the Knicks did just that against the Atlanta Hawks. They controlled the outcome for much of the night and took a 12-point edge into the fourth quarter after leading by as many as 14.Then New York shot 5-for-22 from the floor in the final 12 minutes compared to 10-for-15 for Atlanta. Fighting through vulgar chants from the Madison Square Garden faithful, Hawks star CJ McCullom scored six straight points down the stretch during one key sequence on the way to a game-high 32.“In that fourth quarter, you could tell [the Hawks] were playing with a level of desperation,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “There were four 50-50 balls, and they got three of the four. We always use that stat to gauge the level of aggression in a game. In that fourth quarter, their aggression stepped up.”New York’s melted at the same time. How many late possessions saw the Knicks pass or hold the ball around the perimeter before settling for subpar looks from 3-point range? The Knicks went 3-for-11 from deep as part of their flop.Denver led the Minnesota Timberwolves by 19 points early in the second quarter before crumbling. The Nuggets still were ahead by three points to start the fourth quarter but a combined 2-for-12 shooting effort from pillars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in the final 12 minutes took a toll.“I feel like we had the game in hand, and then we just didn’t make our shots,” Murray said.As with the Knicks and Hawks, the reversal of fortunes stemmed both from the hosts’ miscues and an outstanding effort from a visiting player, as Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards had 30 points.“Great leadership, positive,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “He recognized he needed to get into attack mode and get downhill a little bit more. He did that.”The Knicks and Nuggets no doubt sensed the need to amp up their own urgency as things started slipping away Monday.That neither could act upon it didn’t signal the end for either New York or Denver, of course. But now there’s unnecessary added weight for the climb back to the top. #Knicks #Nuggets #Blow #Big #Leads #Wrong #Game #Deadspin.com")
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