Seton Hall University
13-9,6-5Big East
Butler
11-12,3-9Big East
Balanced Effort Leads Seton Hall To 70-49 Win At Butler
1/28/2023 7:42:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Indianapolis, Ind. - Balanced scoring and another shutdown defensive effort gave the Seton Hall Men's basketball team its third BIG EAST road win of the season on Saturday as the Pirates defeated Butler, 70-49, inside Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Junior Dre Davis (Indianapolis, Ind.) led all scorer's in his homecoming with 15 points in only 13 minutes off of the bench. Junior Kadary Richmond (Brooklyn, N.Y.) posted 10 points, five rebounds and five assists for The Hall (13-9, 6-5 BIG EAST) while senior Al-Amir Dawes (Newark, N.J.) and graduate student KC Ndefo (Elmont, N.Y.) chipped in with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
The Pirates are now 13-1 on the season when they hold opponents under 70 points. It's the ninth time this season that Seton Hall has held a team to 55 points or less.
How It Happened
Butler went up 4-0 early, connecting on its first two field goal attempts, but the Pirates went on a 13-2 run with seven of those points coming from junior Femi Odukale (Brooklyn, N.Y.), to take a seven point lead, 13-6. After a Butler three-pointer cut its deficit to four, a runner in the lane by Ndefo and back-to-back buckets by Richmond gave the Pirates its first double-digit lead of the game, 19-9, with 10:53 to go in the first half.
Seton Hall led 27-16 after a made field goal by the Bulldogs and it would be the final bucket that Butler would score in the first half as the Pirates clamped down and pushed their halftime lead to 20 points thanks to a corner three-point basket by Dawes at the buzzer, 38-18. Butler would get the Seton Hall lead to under 20 points just once the rest of the way when a three-pointer by Butler's Eric Hunter Jr. made it a 19-point game. However, stellar ball movement gave way to an open shot as Ndefo on foul line found Dawes on the wing for an open three that pushed the lead back up to 22, 47-25, with 15:45 to play.
Inside The Numbers
- Seton Hall held Butler to 37 percent shooting from the field for the game and 24 percent shooting from three (4-of-17).
- The Pirates shot 47 percent from the floor and 39 percent from beyond the arc (7-of-18).
- The Hall out rebounded the Bulldogs, 37-30, and was plus-two on the offensive glass.
- Seton Hall dished out 11 assists as a team to nine turnovers.
- Butler committed 13 turnovers and the Pirates forced 11 steals.
- The Pirates led for 37:20 of game time.
- Seton Hall had 13 second chance points to Butler's four and scored 34 of its 70 points in the paint.
- Ndefo chipped in with two assists and three steals.
- Odukale had a game-high plus-minus of +26, finishing with nine points and four rebounds.
- Freshman Tae Davis (Indianapolis, Ind.) finished with four points and a team-high six rebounds in his homecoming.
News & Notes
- Seton Hall has won six of its last eight games and remains in sole possession of fifth place in the BIG EAST with a 6-5 record.
- 49 points scored by Butler was the fewest allowed in a BIG EAST game by Seton Hall since allowing 43 at Providence on Feb. 3, 2021.
- Seton Hall is riding its first three-game road win streak in BIG EAST play since winning six straight to open BIG EAST play in 2019-20.
- It's the first time in the BIG EAST Era that Seton Hall has held five opponents to under 50 points in a season.
- Seton Hall has won in five of its last seven visits to Hinkle Fieldhouse and has won by double digits in three of its last four meetings against Butler overall.
- The Pirates now have four quad one and quad two wins this season.
- The Hall's 20-point lead at halftime was its largest of the season.
- Richmond went over 300 career assists with his five-assist output.
- Richmond has 11 games with five or more assists this season.
- Dre Davis tallied his ninth double figure scoring game of the season.
Up Next
Seton Hall wraps up its two-game road jaunt when the Pirates head to Queens to take on St. John's on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 8:30 p.m. on CBS Sports Network. Fans can listen to Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin call the action on the Seton Hall Basketball Radio Network that can be heard on the SHU Pirates mobile app, the Varsity network and SiriusXM.
