NEWARK – With 45 seconds remaining in a nip-and-tuck game between bitter in-state rivals, Jeremy Hazell drove into the paint and elevated between two taller defenders, only to let loose a soft floater that fell effortlessly through the net and extended his team’s lead to six points.
Hazell, a 6-foot-5 sophomore who more and more looks like he could have a future in the NBA, overcame a slow start and ultimately proved too dominant a force for Rutgers to overcome.
And below are a few choice quotes from the parties involved…
“Tonight’s game was about Seton Hall and Rutgers. I sat out my suspension, it’s behind me, I did what I had to do. Hopefully everybody recognizes I was well-behaved with the officials tonight, not just because we won . . . Back in the day (in the Big East of the 1980s). . . the same stuff was going on. Nowadays with the Internet and blogs, the way games are covered are much more scrutinized, things get blown out of proportion or a lot more attention.”
—Bobby Gonzalez on his relationship with Fred Hill
“At the end of the game he was yelling to us, ‘Give me the ball.’ He must have said it about a hundred times. And he took us home. That performance—-it’s great to have him on our team.”
—Seton Hall forward John Garcia on Jeremy Hazell
“Mike Davis came alive and showed a pulse. He was flatlining for a couple of weeks.”
—Gonzo on Mike Davis
“Me going to the basket, the mid-range jump shot, that’s been working these past couple of games so it’s feeling good.”
–Hazell on what’s feeling good
“It was a close game. I knew it was going to come down to a free throw game, so I just made a lot of free throws. I just wanted the ball in my hands at the end of the game and they found a way to do that. So it worked out for us and we got the ‘W.'”
–Hazell on wanting the ball down the stretch
“It feels really good. Rutgers is a rivalry game. I knew this game was going to come down to the wire, big, big rivalry game. It felt good us coming down to having a good game against Rutgers and we pulled it off, won two games in a row, so it feels good going into the St. John’s game.”
–Hazell on winning two in a row
“We expect to come in and play hard and give it all we got and play hard for 40 minutes.”
–Hazell on St. John’s next Thursday on ESPN2
“Mike Rosario is a tough freshman kid…He had 25 points against us, so he did a real good job. And we held him. And Corey Chandler and all the guys, they did what they had to do. We just found a way to lock down defensively in the second half and get some stops.
–Hazell on Mike Rosario
