NEWARK, N.J. --- The praise lavished on California Baptist University by Seton Hall Head Coach Bobby Gonzalez said it all. The scoreboard only provided further evidence. The Lancers gave the Big East Conference Pirates all it could handle and impressed the 5,544 inside the Prudential Center.
The Pirates won the game, 92-80, to improve to 7-1 for the first time since 1992-93 but needed a late 10-2 run to put the pesky Lancers away. The game was just an exhibition for the Lancers and won't count against their record.
"It was like playing a team from the Ivy League," said Gonzalez. "We knew they weren't going to roll over. They are well coached, disciplined expect to win, are tough to defend, can pass well and gave us all we could handle. They were a pain."
In a unique match-up pitting the NAIA's No. 15-ranked Lancers against a major player from a major Division I conference, the chasm between the two that should have been wasn't there Tuesday night.
"We knew we had an uphill battle just from an athletic standpoint," said CBU Head Coach Tim Collins. "It was nice to hang around with them for awhile. As soon as they respected us, they started to pick it up."
It took the Pirates, who boast wins over No. 16 USC and Virginia Tech and whose lone loss was to national runner-up Memphis, more than 32 minutes to pick it up and figure out a way to deal with a team that had traveled 3,000 miles across three time zones and didn't arrive at their hotel until late Monday night.
Still, even when they did pick it up, no lead grew bigger than 13 the entire night and that was with 53 seconds left.
Davey Hopkins gave the Lancers a 66-65 lead with a lay-up with 8:48 to play. Robert Mitchell hit a jumper on the next possession, and then a steal by Paul Gause that lead to a Eugene Harvey lay-up spearheaded the late game-clinching run. Mitchell capped the run with a lay-up that gave the Pirates a 75-68 lead with 6:02 remaining.
"There were two guys that we decided to not guard as closely, because they haven't been shooting well," said Collins. "Those guys-Mitchell and Harvey-killed us tonight."
Harvey finished with 25 points to surpass the 1,000-point plateau tonight. Mitchell had 18 points and a game-high eight rebounds off the bench. Big East leading scorer Jeremy Hazell also had 25 points.
Five Lancers scored in double-figures. Robert Rose led them all with 18 points off the bench. Mark Roussin finished with 17.
The Pirates, who employ a full-court pressing style the entire game, forced the Lancers into 21 turnovers, converting those into 30 points. Gause had a game-high seven steals.
"Paul (Gause) broke the game open with his seven steals," said Gonzalez. "When you get in a street fight like this, you have to find a way to win. You have to go with quickness and toughness, and we needed to guard the perimeter, get long rebounds and be able to get some steals, and we did that in the second half."
Seton Hall started the game with a 12-2 flurry as the Lancers missed their first six shots and committed three turnovers in the first 3:16. The Pirates led 32-23 when the Lancers used a 13-2 spurt capped by a pair of free throws by Omar Krayem to take their first lead of the game at 36-34 with 2:31 left in the half. The Hall, though, led 45-39, at the intermission.
A jumper by Hazell gave the Pirates a 54-45 advantage just five minutes into the second half when the Lancers went on a 14-2 run, keeping the Pirates scoreless for nearly four minutes. A Roussin three-pointer gave the Lancers a 57-56 lead and a lay-up by Rose made it 59-56 with 10:58 to play. The lead changed hands five more times over the course of the next two minutes before Mitchell's jumper gave it to the Pirates for good.
The Lancers got within four (75-71) with 5:30 to play but got no closer than that.
"We haven't played well in the last five minutes the past two games," said Collins. "They got to the rim a ton at the end, and there wasn't much we could do about it. They were quite a bit quicker than we were in a few positions and when they would turn it up a notch, we had trouble."
The Lancers shot a hefty .534 (31-for-58) oftentimes getting into the lane at will while attacking the basket. More than half of their points were in the paint.
"We knew that if we could handle the press and attack the basket once we broke it, we figured that we might be OK tonight," said Collins.
Hopkins finished with 16 points and five rebounds. Krayem had 12 points and five assists. Brandon Robinson had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists. Roussin also added five rebounds and five assists.
"Sometimes kids look at the name on the front of the jersey and they don't understand that there are good players everywhere," said Gonzalez. "That Roussin is one heck of a player. He could play in a lot of leagues around the country. They were a tough match-up for us, gave us a tough test, and we were fortunate to get out of here with a win."
