Seton Hall
Game preview: No.18 Seton Hall hopes to upset No.5 Butler in Indianapolis
Date: January 14, 2020By: Angelique McKenzie
No. 18 Seton Hall (12-4 overall, 4-0 conference) will be taking on the No. 5 Butler Bulldogs (15-1 overall, 3-0 conference) this Wednesday, Jan. 15, in Indianapolis.
The Pirates are coming off what is their sixth straight win against the Marquette Golden Eagles, 69-55. This win marks the Pirates’ best start in conference play since joining the Big East in 1979, a title that was previously held by the ’92-’93 that won both the conference regular season and tournament titles.
In the game against the Golden Eagles, Seton Hall saw a major contribution from Myles Powell who led the team with 23 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Quincy McKnight helped with six assists and four rebounds, while Romaro Gill contributed 10 points including four from the charity stripe. The reserve group of Shavar Reynolds, Tyrese Samuel, Anthony Nelson, and Ike Obiagu provided the defensive energy that helped sail the team to victory.
During the Marquette game the biggest challenge for the Hall was to shut down Markus Howard, this Butler game, however, is an entirely different animal. No one player on Butler is averaging more than 15 points per game with their scoring leader being Kamar Baldwin at 14.8 points per game. Both the Pirates and the Bulldogs play very defensive basketball so the chances of either team scoring more than 80 points is slim to none.
The Bulldogs come into this game with a conference record of 3-0 after beating St. John’s, Creighton, and Providence. The only team that posed a real challenge was St. John’s, who scored 42 points in the second half to nearly come back and win the game.
In the nonconference portion of their schedule, Butler scraped out a one-point victory against Stanford, a team that despite not being ranked has consistently received votes in the AP poll. The Bulldogs’ one loss of the season came at the hands of then fourth ranked Baylor, also by a one-point margin.
These two teams met twice last season, and each walked away with one game apiece. Both games were extremely loud and incredibly close with the Pirates winning in the Prudential Center, 76-75, but losing on the road in Indianapolis, 70-68. This week’s match will be more of the same as Seton Hall looks to extend their win streak to seven games and put Butler’s six game streak to an end.
This game will be broadcasted live on WSOU with coverage starting at 6 p.m. Jose Feliciano and Michael Daly will be on the call for this game, while Heaven Hill and John Makuch keep you updated from our South Orange, N.J., studios. Make sure to tune in to 89.5 FM WSOU from your car, or on iHeartRadio to catch all the action.
Angelique McKenzie can be reached at angelique.mckenzie@student.shu.edu. Image credit: Seton Hall Men's Basketall twitter.
Posted in: Sports, WSOU, Men's Basketball
