Chaunce Jenkins paced his new team with 19 points and six rebounds and Seton Hall survived an upset bid by visiting Saint Peter's 57-53 on Monday in Newark, N.J.
The Old Dominion transfer went 9-for-10 at the foul line and combined with fellow Pirates newcomer Prince Aligbe to power a go-ahead 10-0 run in the home stretch of both teams' season opener.
The Peacocks had a 50-46 lead with 7:39 left but then went scoreless for the next 5:20, putting up just four shots in that span.
Seton Hall's Garwey Dual broke up a pass, kept it from going out of bounds and passed it to Jenkins at center court. Jenkins then sent an alley-oop pass to Aligbe, whose layup at the five-minute mark put Princeton ahead for good at 51-50.
That sequence marked the only field goal in a Seton Hall run that featured eight free throws. The Pirates outscored the Peacocks 24-16 at the foul line.
Aligbe, a transfer from Boston College, had 10 points and Dylan Addae-Wusu added eight points and six rebounds for Seton Hall (1-0). The Pirates won despite shooting just 31.8 percent from the floor.
Freshman Bryce Eaton started for Saint Peter's (0-1) and scored 12 points with six rebounds. Armoni Zeigler had eight points and 11 boards.
Seton Hall was down 14-12 when Jenkins' fastbreak layup launched a 12-1 run. Jenkins and Addae-Wusu made 3-pointers to cap that stretch and David Tubek soon added five points to make it a 29-18 game with 4:21 left in the half.
Saint Peter's whittled the deficit to 32-27 by halftime and tied it at 35 in the opening minutes of the second half. Jenkins answered with a triple for the Pirates, but the Peacocks struck back and took the first of two brief leads on Eaton's fastbreak layup.
Addae-Wusu's tough three-point play put Seton Hall ahead 45-44 with 9:12 to go, but after two Saint Peter's free throws, freshman Jakai Sanders nailed a 3-pointer to put the Peacocks ahead by four with 8:04 remaining.
--Field Level Media
Saint Peter's | Seton Hall | |
Bryce Eaton 12 | Scoring | Chaunce Jenkins 19 |
Bryce Eaton 3 | Assists | Garwey Dual 5 |
Armoni Zeigler 11 | Rebounds | Dylan Addae-Wusu 6 |
Armoni Zeigler 5 | Free Throws Made | Chaunce Jenkins 9 |
Bryce Eaton 4 | Steals | Dylan Addae-Wusu 3 |
Stephon Roberts 2 | Blocks | Yacine Toumi 2 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Saint Peter's | 53 | 35.7 | 7-20 | 16-25 | 7 | 31 | 3 | 9 | 19 |
Seton Hall | 57 | 31.8 | 5-16 | 24-37 | 10 | 27 | 4 | 10 | 14 |