Amaker Not Pleased With Seton Hall Win

Darius Lane scored 26 points and Eddie Griffin had 21 points and 10 rebounds Sunday as No. 11 Seton Hall beat Central Connecticut State, 84-73, at East Rutherford, N.J.

But Seton Hall Coach Tommy Amaker wants to see more intensity from his talented team once the Big East Conference schedule starts.

Seton Hall, which opens Big East play against Providence on Wednesday, saw its 18-point lead trimmed to five late in the game.

“Conference play is starting this week and I hope our guys are a little nervous about it because that may give them a sense of urgency about our play,” Amaker said.

“With our team, a lot can be attributed to youth. When you have situations where you end up trading baskets you don’t have the sense of urgency to guard, to defend, to rebound. Because you are scoring you think things are OK. I’m hoping we will grow out of it soon because it’s going to end up catching up to us.”

Corsley Edwards had 30 points and nine rebounds for Central Connecticut (5-5), which hadn’t played since a 63-56 overtime loss at Air Force on Dec. 12.

The game, originally scheduled for Saturday, was postponed because of the snowstorm that blanketed the New York metropolitan area.

Seton Hall (9-2) only trailed once--when Central Connecticut scored the game’s first basket.

No. 21 Georgetown 79, Houston 63--Anthony Perry scored 16 points and the Hoyas (11-0) overcame poor shooting at the start of each half to win at Houston.

The Hoyas, off to their best start in 11 seasons, fell behind, 8-2, before taking a 49-30 halftime lead. They made only three of 12 shots to start the second half but had plenty of firepower to pull away from the Cougars (3-9), who lost for the seventh time in eight games.

After trailing, 8-2, the Hoyas scored 14 unanswered points for a 16-8 lead and were never threatened. Perry got the Hoyas started with two three-pointers early in the run.

OTHER GAMES

St. John’s 92, San Francisco 77--Alpha Bangura scored all but two of his season-high 19 points in the first half at New York and the Red Storm (6-5) extended its winning streak at Alumni Hall to 26 games by defeating the Dons (6-7).

Bangura, a sophomore transfer from Monmouth, had nine points during a 15-3 run that gave the Red Storm a 42-26 lead with 57 seconds left in the first half.

Nevada Las Vegas 82, Old Dominion 67--Kaspars Kambala had 22 points and 16 rebounds in the Rebels’ victory at Norfolk, Va. Trevor Diggs scored 21 points for UNLV (7-5), and Dalron Johnson added 14 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots.

Arkansas 121, Grambling State 66--Charles Tatum scored 18 points as eight Razorbacks (8-3) scored at least 10 points in an easy victory over Grambling State (0-8) at Fayetteville, Ark.