Northwestern Edges Seton Hall, 44-42

Sunday, December 18

East Rutherford, N.J.

11:00 AM

Northwestern

Seton Hall

Mohamed Hachad hit the game winner for the Wildcats.

12/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Dec. 18, 2005

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Box Score

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) - Mohamed Hachad connected on a backdoor layup with 3.3 seconds left, giving Northwestern a 44-42 victory over Seton Hall Sunday.

Vedran Vukusic, celebrating his 23rd birthday today, scored 18 points, including a huge 3-pointer with 50 seconds remaining that briefly gave Northwestern (5-4) a 42-39 lead. Stan Gaines then tied the game for the Pirates 20 seconds later with a 3-pointer of his own, setting up Hachad's game-winning shot.

Seton Hall (6-3) had a chance to win the game, but Donald Copeland's 3-point attempt bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded.

It was a slow-paced game that featured cold shooting from both teams. Seton Hall shot 23 percent (12 of 51) and connected on just 5 of 30 shots in the second half. Seton Hall also had 20 turnovers. Northwestern was not much warmer, shooting 30 percent (16 of 52).

Northwestern's defense recorded a season-high 14 steals, including three each from Michael Jenkins and Sterling Williams off the bench. Hachad had two steals and deflected several passes out on the perimeter, disrupting Seton Hall's offense all afternoon.

Copeland was the lone Seton Hall player to reach double figures with 14 points.

Seton Hall jumped out to a quick 13-2 lead in the first four minutes, thanks to three straight 3-pointers by Copeland. The Pirates held the Wildcats to just two points for the first nine minutes of the game.

But then Vukusic caught fire, first hitting a long 3-pointer that seemed to invigorate Northwestern, then hitting two running jumpers, cutting the lead to 18-17 with 5:27 left. Vukusic's two free throws with 4:09 left gave Northwestern a 21-18 lead, before Copeland's two free throws with 1:27 left cut the lead to 21-20 at halftime.

Seton Hall took the lead in the second half with five points, and held the lead for most of the half, until Vukusic made a driving layup with 4:23 left, putting Northwestern ahead, 37-36.

Postgame Notes:

Northwestern's win over Seton Hall was the first non-conference road victory since the Wildcats' win at Bowling Green on Dec. 6, 2003.

The 'Cats have won the last two meetings with the Pirates and four of the last five. They lead the all-time series, 4-2.

Northwestern's defense held Seton Hall to 21 points below their season scoring average of 63.1 points. The win also snapped SHU's three-game winning streak.

Northwestern held Seton Hall to just five second half field goals. Seton Hall raced out to an 11-2 lead on the heels of three treys and a Kelly Whitney lay-up with 14:59 left in the first half. Northwestern's defense gave up just eight field goals in the final 35:01.

Seton Hall was unbeaten at home this season (6-0) before their loss to Northwestern this afternoon.

The 12 field goals by Seton Hall tied for the fewest given up by Northwestern in the Bill Carmody era. NU gave up 12 to Penn State last season (2/19/05).

Vedran Vukusic scored a game-high 18 points on his 23rd birthday. He has now led NU in scoring through the first nine games of the season, a feat that has never been done by a Northwestern player in the past 35 years.

Vince Scott had a career-high nine rebounds to go along with four assists, one shy of his personal best.

Sterling Williams recorded a season-high three steals.

The Wildcats are 4-1 this year when leading at the half and 4-1 when they outshoot their opponent.

Attendance: 5,587