New players pay immediate dividends as Seton Hall defeats St. Peter's

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