Myles Powell Has the Key to Late Season Success
The biggest play of Seton Hall's 86-73 home win over St. John's on Sunday afternoon wasn't your typical highlight from the Pirates. It wasn't an impressive 'and one' drive by Khadeen Carrington in traffic. It wasn't a thunderous Desi Rodriguez dunk. It wasn't even Angel Delgado's 20th rebound (and it certainly wasn't his breakaway missed dunk with 7:19 left in the second half).
It was a Myles Powell layup.
After missing his first two shot attempts from beyond the arc, Powell accepted a pass on the right wing, instantly attacked the middle of the floor with his left hand, and weaved his way around defenders to the rim. Powell finished the play with an impressive over-the-shoulder layup from the left side of the hoop at the 6:17 mark of the first half to put the Pirates up 26-17.
Attacking the rim helped the 6'2 Trenton native get into a rhythm offensively. Less than thirty seconds later, Carrington found an open Powell in the left corner and he buried his first three of the day. The freshman guard finished with 19 points, his highest point total since registering a team-high 21 points against Columbia on December 1.
“I thought he (Powell) got a couple layups which, you know, when you’re a shooter and you get a layup and you get an easy layup and you just see the ball go through the net it’s almost like, whew, you take a deep breath,” said coach Kevin Willard during his post-game interview on AM970.
The Pirates hope to see Powell display his offensive versatility more often in the upcoming weeks. The frosh is averaging 10.3 points per game and Seton Hall is 7-1 when Powell scores in double figures. His best game to date was November 17 at Iowa, where he dazzled the Iowa City crowd with 26 points (9-14 from the field, 5-7 from three) and showed that he could take over a close game down the stretch.
However, before Sunday's 3-8 performance from three, Powell was shooting 21.6% from downtown over his first six Big East games.
“We’ve just been talking to him about understanding sometimes freshmen go through tough stretches,” Willard added.
If Myles Powell can adapt to the pace of conference play and become a consistent fourth scorer behind established juniors Carrington (17.4 ppg), Rodriguez (16.3 ppg), and Delgado (14.7 ppg), then Wednesday may be the last day Seton Hall is below .500 in the Big East.
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