MBB Completes Regular-Season at Butler
3/7/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 7, 2014
FOX Sports 1 | Game Notes | | Live Audio | Interviews
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Well rested after completing the season sweep of Xavier with a home victory on Monday, the Seton Hall men's basketball team heads to historic Hinkle Fieldhouse on Saturday to wrap up the 2013-14 regular season against ninth-place Butler (13-16, 3-14). The game will be televised live on FOX Sports 1 at 4:30 p.m. and the radio team of Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin will have the call for 970 AM (WNYM) and the Pirate Sports Network on SHUPirates.com.
Seton Hall (15-15, 6-11) is locked into the #8 seed for next week's BIG EAST Tournament Presented by NEW YORK LIFE while the Bulldogs took control of their own destiny with a convincing 79-46 win at DePaul on Thursday, snapping a seven-game losing streak.
The win was the first for Butler since downing the Pirates, 64-57, in the first ever matchup between the two programs earlier this season (Jan. 29). The Hall is coming off a dominant performance of its own however; after rolling past Xavier, 71-62, on "Senior Night" at the Prudential Center.
Led by a core of veterans playing their final scheduled home contest, the Pirates moved ahead just over two minutes into the game and would never trail again. Senior Brian Oliver (Glassboro, N.J.) led the way, knocking down five 3-pointers to finish with a team-high 20 points. Oliver has now made five or more treys in seven games this season and ranks second in the league to Creighton's Ethan Wragge (95) with 80 3-pointers on the year.
Classmates Fuquan Edwin (Paterson, N.J.) and Eugene Teague (Vineland, N.J.) starred in their valedictory appearances as well, adding 17 points apiece. Edwin converted on 7-of-11 attempts from the field and also added three steals to push his conference-leading to 73. The BIG EAST leader in field goal percentage (.623), Teague turned in a trademark line of 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting to go with eight rebounds.
An illustration of the big man's efficiency throughout the 2013-14 campaign, North Dakota State forward Marshall Bjorklund is the listed NCAA leader with a .639 shooting percentage for the season and only 11 players in the nation are connecting at a 60 percent clip or better.
In the first meeting with Butler, Teague was just as effective, knocking down six of his seven shots but Seton Hall shot just over 40 percent as a team (23-of-57, .404) and totaled season-lows from the foul line (4-of-8, .500) as Butler escaped with a victory.
Senior Khyle Marshall, who is coming off an 18-point showing against the Blue Demons, led four Bulldogs in double-figures with 13 points in the first showdown with The Hall. Elijah Brown came off the bench to add 12 points in 18 minutes and forwards Kameron Woods and Andrew Chrabascz chipped in 11 each.
Marshall will be playing in his final home game along with Erik Fromm, marking the end of an era as the two are the final holdovers from Butler's run to the national title game in 2011.
Sophomore Kellen Dunham leads the new-look Bulldogs under first year head coach Brandon Miller and is seventh in the conference at 16.4 points per game. Dunham shot just 3-of-10 in the first game in the series, but all three of his makes were from downtown and helped Butler prevail in a game that featured eight ties and 13 lead changes.
Despite Dunham's standout campaign, the Bulldogs stand last in the league at 64.8 points/game in conference play. The Bulldogs also rank 10th in the BIG EAST in field goal percentage (.406) and next to last in field goal percentage defense (.477) against league opponents but still could pose issues for head coach Kevin Willard's offensive system that encourages an up-tempo approach with an emphasis on long-range shooting.
Butler has limited its opponents to 31.3 percent from beyond the arc for the season, the stingiest mark in the conference. The Pirates made just 7-of-22 (.318) 3-point attempts in the first meeting, but found success inside, making 15 of their 23 field goals from inside the painted area.
With Oliver, Edwin, Teague and company clicking following the win over Xavier, the Pirates head into Indianapolis with a balanced attack and looking to build momentum that could ignite a bit of march magic at next week's conference tournament.
Should Butler prevail, the two teams will meet again on Wednesday in a first round matchup. A Seton Hall victory would knot the Bulldogs and DePaul at 3-15 in BIG EAST play. The two squads split a pair of meetings, meaning their seed would be determined by their respective records against the top teams in the standings. Butler owns a win over Marquette while the Blue Demons downed St. John's earlier this season.
The Red Storm and Golden Eagles are currently tied with a 9-8 conference record and with a Seton Hall win; the Pirates' first round opponent would be determined by the result of the matchup between Marquette and St. John's on Saturday.
