The victorious players treated the New Jersey-shaped trophy like it was the Stanley Cup, passing it around from one greedy set of hands to another, holding it over their heads like conquering heroes and bouncing celebratory screams off its hardwood surface.
Seton Hall had just defeated Rutgers, 72-66, in the Garden State Hardwood Classic at the Prudential Center, and given its December so far, you’d think the Pirates would have had a more tempered reaction to a win like this. Beating No. 9 Kentucky at Madison Square Garden in overtime, after all, is a wee bit more impressive than topping a 5-5 Rutgers team that just lost to Fordham.
But the reaction made it clear: This was every bit as satisfying. Seton Hall wanted this victory after what happened last December in Piscataway. The Pirates needed this win after a stunning loss against Rutgers a year ago -- one the Scarlet Knights seemed to rub in their faces each of the 364 days since.
“Jersey basketball is only so big,” Seton Hall guard Myles Powell said after scoring a game-high 28 points. "To have to travel around the state just knowing that Rutgers beat us, with people walking around saying that Rutgers was better than Seton Hall, you take it personally.
“They left me with a bad taste all year. I finally got to get them back.”
So let there be no mistake: Seton Hall is back on the top of the hill in the New Jersey hoops scene. The Scarlet Knights finally might be on the right track under Steve Pikiell, and even his counterpart on the Seton Hall bench believes they are.
But, for now and the foreseeable future, Kevin Willard has the better team and the better program.
“What I told the guys is that other than (Villanova), we’ve been the best college basketball program in the Northeast for the past five years -- and it’s not even close,” Willard said.
He’s right. Somehow, though, that loss last December made the Pirates feel like they had to prove it again. Even the Seton Hall game notes handed to the media, usually a boring collection of numbers and facts about the two teams, felt the need to state the obvious.
“UNPARALLELED TRADITIONS: Although the Garden State rivalry creates intense competition between the two programs, there can hardly be a comparison drawn for the traditions of success between the two programs."
Sick burn, P.R. guy.
Maybe it was the attention that Pikiell and Rutgers have gotten for their minimal improvements. Maybe it was the trash-talking social media campaign from Piscataway leading into the game. Maybe it was seeing that the “Rutgers” engraved on the Boardwalk Trophy for the win last year was a little bigger and bolder the three Seton Halls that proceeded it.
Whatever the reason, the Pirates knew they couldn’t lose this. Not with so much red dotting the crowd at the Prudential Center. Not with an NCAA Tournament resume that would struggle to withstand another non-conference loss to a lackluster opponent.
Not against Rutgers.
So the Pirates withstood a sloppy first half when the Scarlet Knights seemed to grab every offensive rebound. Finally, Powell found his groove from 3-point range, thrilling NBA veteran J.R. Smith -- an old friend from South Jersey grassroots hoops -- with each shot.
“I get all my moves from him,” Powell said. “He was yelling at me, telling me I look tired, things like that. He gets on me hard, but it’s great to have him in my corner.”
When Rutgers cut a 17-point lead to three with three and a half minutes to go, it was Powell who calmly stroked a 3 to end the threat. Rutgers had no one to match his offensive skill, not on a day when sophomore Geo Baker -- who is asked to do everything but lace all the sneakers for this team -- was held scoreless in the first half.
The Scarlet Knights are 5-5 with Columbia and Maine left before the Big Ten buzzsaw begins again. It seems clear now that this team, with so many young pieces and no true point guard to make sense of them offensively, will have to take a step back before it can move forward.
The Pirates, meanwhile, improve to 7-3 and, with another out-of-conference test against Maryland upcoming, are well positioned to have a shot at a fourth-straight NCAA Tournament bid entering Big East play. That, given the loss of stalwarts Angel Delgado and Desi Rodriguez, would be quite an accomplishment.
They’ll have bigger days ahead. Still, on the floor at the Prudential Center, they celebrated like this was far more significant than beating a .500 team in December. They passed around that trophy, admiring its Garden State-glory, and posed for photos with the scoreboard in view.
“New Jersey’s NCAA TOURNAMENT team,” the arena announcer declared, one last sick burn for a program that didn’t need to prove its superiority in New Jersey, but sure as hell wanted to anyway.
Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.