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Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
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Saturday / November 23.

Seton Hall recently lost its best player to injury, while St. Peter’s just got theirs back.

With senior guard Wesley Jenkins back in the fold, the Peacocks (2-3) have a chance for a big win Monday at the Prudential Center against the Pirates (2-3), who are playing without leading scorer Jeremy Hazell, out with a broken wrist.

“I just think at the end of the day we’ve got to play really well to beat them, with or without Hazell,” said St. Peter’s coach John Dunne, a former Seton Hall assistant under Louis Orr.

Eugene Harvey hit a one-handed 28-footer at the buzzer to lift Seton Hall to a 53-51 victory last year. This year’s game will be shown at 7 p.m. on SNY.

Justin Brownlee scored 20 points and was named Most Outstanding Player as St. John’s won the Great Alaska Shootout title with a 67-58 win over Arizona State.

Dwight Hardy added 14 points, all of which came in the second half, when the Red Storm shot 64 percent to rally from a 10-point halftime deficit.

“Our defense and pressure became more aggressive in the second half. The five guards made the difference,” said head coach Steve Lavin. “We were opportunistic in transition in terms of making steals and converting into them into layups. With the five-guard line-up, we were able to get out on their shooters and get some runouts in the half-court as well.”

By Mike Vorkunov

PHILADELPHIAPhil Martelli only got caught looking once.

The St. Joseph’s coach did not want to look to the bench on the other side of the Palestra because he would see two men he knew intimately, his former assistant in Rutgers coach Mike Rice and his son, Jimmy, an assistant on Rice’s staff.

“It only got disconcerting one time,” said Phil Martelli. “I never look down that way but I look down and that little sucker Jimmy had our call before I had our call on a foul shot. I had to bite my lip from not laughing.”

His son may have gotten the best of him there but Phil and his Hawks won in the end with a 76-70 victory over Rutgers in the Hoop Group Classic.

Duke-bound guard Austin Rivers dropped 46 points in his season opener as Winter Park (Fla.) downed Monteverde, 102-92, on Friday.

The 6-foot-3 Rivers, who chose Duke after decommitting from Florida, also surpassed the 2,000-point plateau. He entered the game with 1,981 career points.

“I actually didn’t know that coming in,” Rivers told the Orlando Sentinel. “We were concentrated on winning this game and starting out with a bang … But there have been a lot of great players to play at Winter Park, so it means a lot.”

NEW YORK — All the championships and tradition didn’t help UCLA much this weekend in the Big Apple.

The Bruins will leave the NIT Tip-Off with back-to-back losses to No. 7 Villanova and VCU, although they put up a good fight before falling to the Rams, 89-85, in the consolation game.

Things won’t get much easier for Ben Howland’s crew, whose next game is Dec. 2 at No. 6 Kansas.

“I think we have a good group of kids that are good kids,” Howland said. “They’re going to work hard. They’re disappointed right now. They have two losses in a row. And our next game is against Kansas against one of the best teams in the country…So we have a tough road ahead of us.”

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