Pirates Drop Tough Game to St. John's

Saturday, February 23

New York, N.Y. (Madison Square Garden)

8 p.m.

Seton Hall University

16-11, 7-8BE

St. John's

20-8, 8-7BE

Seton Hall

St. John's

Photo by: Porter Binks

2/23/2019 11:34:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score BOX (PDF)

NEW YORK - The Seton Hall men's basketball team fell behind St. John's in the first half, and although the Pirates whittled down a 23-point deficit to five with 1:46 to go, the Red Storm pulled away with a 78-70 win Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. Junior Myles Powell (Trenton, N.J.) led the Pirates with 26 points.

Seton Hall (16-11, 7-8 BIG EAST) and St. John's (20-8, 8-7 BIG EAST) ended up splitting the regular season series with each team winning on its home floor.

Turning Point
Seton Hall fell behind 28-5, and it was an uphill climb from there. The Pirates never gave up and got within five with a late 12-3 run. Then they could have cut it to a one-possession game, but a turnover doomed The Hall as St. John's then got the lead back up to 11 before Powell's three at the end finished it at eight.

Inside the Numbers

Seton Hall shot 40.4 percent from the field (23-for-57), 25 percent from three (5-for-20) and 76 percent at the free throw line (19-for-25). St. John's shot 48.3 percent overall (28-for-58), 31.8 percent from three (7-for-22) and 83.3 percent at the line (15-for-18).
Seton Hall out-rebounded St. John's, 41-27, and led in paint points, 36-28. Both teams finished with eight second chance points.
Turnovers proved costly for The Hall, giving the ball away 22 times, which led to 28 St. John's points.
St. John's blocked 12 shots to Seton Hall's five.
Powell finished with a team-high 26 points. He was 9-for-21 from the field and 6-for-7 at the free throw line.
Senior Michael Nzei (Makurdi, Nigeria) had 11 points, making all four of his field goal attempts.

News & Notes

Seton Hall and St. John's split the season series, 1-1. The Pirates have still won seven of the last 10 matchups.
The Pirates suffered their third loss of the season when scoring 70 points in a game. The other two defeats were to DePaul.
This was also Seton Hall's first loss of the season when Powell scores at least 25 points.
Powell surpassed Kelly Whitney (2002-06) and John Allen (2001-05) for 21st all-time in Seton Hall scoring history. He now has 1,469 points and is only 40 points from cracking the top 20.

Up Next
The Pirates have a bye week and will play at Georgetown on Saturday, March 2 at 6:30 p.m. The game will be nationally televised on CBS Sports Network, and Dave Popkin and John Fanta will have the call on AM970 The Answer, simulcast on XM 380 and the Pirate Sports Network.