Quinnipiac Bobcats at Seton Hall Pirates

Rodriguez, Nzei lead Seton Hall over Quinnipiac 90-79

The Pirates got 23 points and 11 rebounds from Desi Rodriguez, but also needed a late spark from Michael Nzei to finish off a 90-79 victory in the AdvoCare Invitational at Disney World on Friday night.

Nzei had 19 points and 12 rebounds for the Pirates (4-1), including a crucial four-point play that gave his team some breathing room after Quinnipiac trimmed a double-digit deficit to two with less than 10 minutes to go.

"Mike was great," Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said, adding that's he's also been impressed by the way Tom Moore has Quinnipiac playing in this tournament.

The Bobcats (0-4) also challenged No. 11 Gonzaga in its opening game.

"Tommy is doing a great job. He's got a young team. They play hard. They play really aggressive defense," Willard said. "I told him after the game, if your kids keep playing like that you're going to win a lot of games."

Quinnipiac took an early 10-point lead before Rodriguez scored eight points in a 10-0 burst that jump-started Seton Hall, which outscored the Bobcats 36-19 over the final 14 minutes of the opening half to lead 46-39 at the break.

The Pirates built the lead to 15 in the second half, but didn't finally put the game away until after Peter Kiss keyed a 13-0 run that enabled Quinnipiac to cut its deficit to 62-60.

Kiss made two long 3-pointers in the burst and finished with 19 points. Daniel Harris had 18 points and Chaise Daniels added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Bobcats.

"The tournament so far has been a step in the right direction," Moore said. "We've been kind of thrown into the deep end of the pool against some incredible programs. We've played much better down here than we did back home in our first two losses."

Khadeen Carrington had 17 for Seton Hall after scoring a career-best 28 in the Pirates' opening-round loss.

BIG PICTURE

Seton Hall: The Pirates, who faded down the stretch in a loss to Florida in the opening round, haven't lost consecutive games against nonconference opponents since November 2011.

Quinnipiac: The Bobcats also played No. 11 Gonzaga close for 15 minutes on Thursday, trailing by one before the Bulldogs scored nine straight to pull away to a 20-point win.

UP NEXT

Seton Hall: Meets Stanford in the fifth-place game on Sunday night.

Quinnipiac: Faces Indiana State for seventh place on Sunday.

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