Game preview: No.18 Seton Hall looks to stay undefeated in the Big East at Madison Square Garden against St. John's

Date: January 17, 2020

By: Michael Daly

The Seton Hall men’s basketball team (13-4 overall, 5-0 Big East) will travel to Madison Square Garden to battle the St. John’s Red Storm at 12 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

The Pirates sit atop the Big East Conference as the only undefeated team in conference play. Through their first five games of the conference schedule, the Hall have won each of their games by at least eight points. Seton Hall makes their return to the tri-state area after pulling off a thrilling upset against No. 5 Butler in Indianapolis on Wednesday evening.

Through the opening 3:36 of the game against the Butler Bulldogs, the Seton Hall Pirates jumped out to an early 10-5 lead. Butler eventually captured the lead and finished the first half ahead of Seton Hall, 40-30. Seton Hall shot 37.9% from the field in the opening 20 minutes of the game.

Seton Hall remained behind Butler for most of the second half but began to whittle into the deficit by exposing the Bulldogs’ paint defense. The Pirates reclaimed the advantage over Butler with seven minutes left and both sides went back and forth. The Pirates held on to win and shocked Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse, 78-70.

Despite their shooting woes in the first half, Seton Hall finished the game with a 41.4 field goal percentage. On the season, the Pirates hit 44.8% of their shots and allowed a shooting percentage of 38.6% to their opponents. When Seton Hall faces St. John’s on Saturday, they will be going up against a Red Storm squad that shoots 41.1% from the field as a team.

St. John’s currently stands at the eighth spot in the Big East standings with a 1-4 record against their Big East opponents. St. John’s came into their conference schedule with an 11-2 overall record and took down then No. 16 Arizona, 70-67, on Dec. 21, 2019.

New Year’s Eve was the Red Storm’s first game of Big East play and they fell to Butler, 60-58. Times have not improved for St. John’s, as the only win came against DePaul at home in Madison Square Garden on Jan. 11. St. John’s was on the road on Wednesday night in Rhode Island against Providence.

The Red Storm suffered a five-point loss to the Providence Friars, 63-58. One glaring issue for St. John’s in the Providence contest was that three players were on the floor for seven or more minutes and did not score at all.

In preparation for Saturday’s game, Seton Hall will have to focus a great deal of their attention on defending LJ Figueroa. He is the leading scorer for Mike Anderson’s Red Storm club with 14.6 points-per-game. The Red Storm boasts two other players with double-figure averages, Mustapha Heron and Rasheem Dunn, 13.2 and 12.1 points-per-game, respectively.

In the 2018-2019 season series between Seton Hall and St. John’s, the home team was victorious in both contests. St. John’s hopes to slow down Seton Hall’s hot streak with a victory to reverse their misfortunes of the Big East season.

Coverage of the game between Seton Hall and St. John’s will start at 11:30 a.m., with the pregame show that will be hosted by Wilnir Louis and Liam Plate. On the call from Madison Square Garden will be Dalton Allison and Jose Feliciano.

Michael Daly is the Web Editor at WSOU Sports and can be reached at wsousportswebeditor@gmail.com.

Posted in: Sports, WSOU, Men's Basketball