Dylan Addae-Wusu insisted it was just another game.
No extra motivation.
No desire to show St. John’s new coaching staff that it should have kept him.
His performance said otherwise.
The former Johnnies’ guard torched his old team, helping Seton Hall cruise past St. John’s, 80-65, at Prudential Center on Tuesday night.
“He came out and played [well],” Pirates coach Shaheen Holloway said. “He was ready, and I thought it was a carryover. I thought he had a good game at Butler, and I think he came in and kind of set the tone, got his hands on a lot of balls, scoring, driving to the basket, hitting 3s. I’m happy for him, but like I said, we’ve got a lot of work to be done.”
Addae-Wusu had 16 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, playing a major role in the one-sided victory.
He sank three 3-pointers, hit all five of his free throws and notched his second double-double of the season.
Addae-Wusu hasn’t scored much this year — his 8.4 points per game average is his lowest since his freshman year — but he has come on of late offensively, reaching double figures in three of his last six games.
He downplayed the opponent, although he spent the first three years of his career at St. John’s.
“It was just another game, just another opportunity to play Seton Hall basketball,” said Addae-Wusu, one of several players new St. John’s coach Rick Pitino opted not to keep upon taking over.
Ironically, two of his best games have come against familiar faces.
On Saturday in a win over Butler, Addae-Wusu had 14 points against close friend and former St. John’s teammate Posh Alexander.
Three days later, he performed even better for the red-hot Pirates, who have been the surprise of the Big East so far.
Picked to finish ninth in the league, they are all alone atop the standings.
With a win over No. 18 Creighton on Saturday in Newark, Seton Hall (13-5, 6-1) will likely be ranked in the Associated Press Top-25 poll on Monday for the first time in the Holloway era.
“We’re still gonna be counted as the underdogs because they didn’t believe we could be here,” said guard Al-Amir Dawes, who scored a game-high 21 points.
“We just knew what we could do. We still want to be the underdogs, we still want to play with that chip on our shoulder.”
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