Seton Hall Falls to #18 St. John's On Senior Night

Published: Saturday, March 7, 2026

by Thomas Kvaloe

NEWARK, N.J. – The Seton Hall Pirates (20-11, 10-10) fell in the final home game of the season against #18 St. John’s Red Storm (25-6, 18-2) in a close affair.

It seemed like the Hall was going to start strong within the first few minutes of the game, but the Red Storm quickly came into their own. This led to the visitors taking a 5-point lead in the opening five minutes.

This matchup continued to have everything you need early, with a real physical battle. The Pirates took awhile to get started, but after the 10-minute mark of the first half, they came alive. They finally took the lead with five minutes remaining, which then traded back and forth.

St. John’s had multiple stints of no scoring toward the end of the first, but Seton Hall was unable to convert on it. Some momentum was building for the Pirates, but it was snuffed out after a 3-pointer from Ruben Prey gave the Red Storm the lead back with a little over a minute remaining in the half.

The Hall struggled right at the end of the half, as they were down three, 30-27, to end the first half. Going into this game, that would not seem like a bad result, but some missed opportunities and bad calls left a sour taste going into halftime.

The second half did not start much better than the first ended. St. John’s finally got hot from the 3-point line, but the Pirates did well to stay in reach. With 15:48 to be played in the game, the Hall was down by only five, 40-35.

Seton Hall looked defeated for a while, falling down by nine, which was the biggest deficit of the game, but then the Hall came alive. Budd Clark made the first shot in the paint, followed by Najai Hines and Trey Parker, with the former also being fouled and completing the three-point play.

After the home team cut the lead down, St. John’s came alive again, quickly putting their lead back up to five. Seton Hall continued to battle back, as with nine minutes remaining, it was anyone's game, at 50-49.

It kept getting worse for the home team, falling down 62-51 with 3:58 left in the game. Seton Hall did end up cutting the lead to 66-63 in the waning moments, but that was the closest it got, with St. John's winning 72-65.

The three-point shot was a thorn in the side for Seton Hall once again, as they shot 1-11 from deep, while also struggling from the charity stripe, coming in at 18-27.

With the loss, the only road left to the NCAA tournament now rests with running the table in the BIG EAST tournament.  That said, Seton Hall will be back on Thursday for their first game of the BIG EAST tournament at Madison Square Garden against either DePaul or Creighton.

Tommy Kvaloe can be reached at thomas.kval@student.shu.edu.

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