Pirates Ready for BIG EAST Tournament Clash with Butler

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - Wintrust Arena

#4 SETON HALL (18-11, 11-7) vs. #5 BUTLER (19-10, 11-7)

Date

Time

Live Video

Live Audio

Live Stats

Twitter

Saturday,
March 7

3:30 PM ET

LIVE STATS

@SHUWBB

THE GAME
Seton Hall will begin play at the 2020 BIG EAST Championship on Saturday, March 7. The fourth-seeded Pirates will face fifth-seeded Butler at 3:30 p.m. ET at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Ill.

MEDIA
The game will be televised nationally on FS2 with Matt Schumacker, Kim Adams and Meghan Caffrey on the call. As usual, the game will also be available over the airwaves at 89.5 FM WSOU and at wsou.net. Bob Towey and Ronnie Castaneda will describe the action on the radio. We'll also have the obligatory live stats available as well.

LAST GAME
Seniors Shadeen Samuels (Ossining, N.Y.) and Alexis Lewis (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) combined for 43 points as the Pirates team defeated Butler, 66-53, on Senior Day Sunday.

Samuels had a game-high 23 points to go with eight rebounds and two steals, while Lewis erupted for 20 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Junior Desiree Elmore (Hartford, Conn.) nearly had a double-double, settling with 10 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals.

A breakaway layup by Samuels gave The Hall a commanding 26-16 lead with just 1:34 to go before the break, but Butler closed the half with an 8-0 run, and Genesis Parker's layup at the halftime buzzer sent the Pirates into the locker room up only two, 26-24.

Seton Hall opened the second half with a 10-2 run, and a pair of made free-throws by Samuels extended its lead to 36-26 with 5:57 to go in the third quarter.

Leading 57-43 with under five minutes left in the game, Butler mounted a final charge and used an 8-0 run to cut The Hall's lead to only six points with 2:44 to go. The Pirates however, responded with a game-clinching 9-0 burst of their own, and a pair of free-throws by Jasmine Smith (Houston, Texas) gave them an insurmountable 66-51 advantage with just over a minute left.

SEED TIE-BREAKING
An unprecedented five-way tie for third place sent Villanova all the way down to the seven seed despite an 11-7 BIG EAST record. Butler, Creighton, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova all finished 11-7 in the standings. The record against each other in the five-team "mini-conference" was used to seed the tie, with St. John's going 6-2 against the other four to claim the No. 3 seed. Seton Hall and Butler followed at 4-4 with the Pirates sweeping the Bulldogs to break that further tie and clinch the No. 4 seed and move BU to No. 5, while Creighton and Villanova followed at 3-5, with the Bluejays sweeping the Wildcats to clinch the final first-round bye as the No. 6 seed, and sending VU to the first round as the No. 7 seed.

vs.

Seton Hall's All-Time vs. the Bulldogs: 9-5
Last Meeting: HALL 66, Butler 53 – March 1, 2020

SCOUTING BUTLER
Butler finished the 2019-20 season with a 19-10 overall record and was one of the four teams the Pirates tied with for third place with an 11-7 record in BIG EAST play. Via tie-breakers in the five-way tie for third place, the Pirates earned the No. 4 seed and Butler earned the No. 5 seed. The Hall swept the Bulldogs in the season series, including a 66-53 victory on Senior Day Sunday.

Butler enters the BIG EAST Championship having lost four of their last six games including two last weekend. On Friday, they fell in overtime at St. John's.

Kristen Spolyar finished the season with 18.1 points per game in BIG EAST play, which ranked second-best in the conference. Her seven rebounds tied for ninth.

Saturday's contest will be the first-ever meeting between Seton Hall and Butler in the BIG EAST Championship.

UP NEXT
If Seton Hall wins, it will play the winner between top-seeded DePaul and its quarterfinal opponent, the winner between No. 8 Providence and No. 9 Georgetown. The game will be on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ET and nationally televised on FS1.