Both DePaul and Seton Hall will take the floor for Saturday night’s Big East tilt in Newark, N.J., hoping to snap brief losing streaks.
Seton Hall (15-9, 6-8 Big East) has dropped two road games to ranked foes by a combined 11 points. Last Saturday, the Pirates led then-No. 15 Villanova by seven in the second half before the Wildcats took over and secured a season sweep with a 73-67 win.
Then the Pirates fell to No. 24 UConn 70-65 on Wednesday. They were unable to slow Huskies big Adama Sanogo, who went for 20 points and 16 rebounds.
“Ike (Obiagu) and Tyrese (Samuel) were doing their best with Sanogo, but the way they were rebounding, we needed Lex,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said, referencing forward Alexis Yetna, who finished with three points, eight boards and three turnovers. “Lex had a couple open looks, and then he passed one up, which I thought was huge.”
Still considered an NCAA Tournament team by most bracket experts, Seton Hall now enters a soft portion of its schedule. None of its remaining five regular-season games are against ranked opponents, but that means there is vanishingly little room for error.
The Pirates are also learning how to play without Bryce Aiken, a dynamic scorer off the bench who was injured Jan. 15 and has been in concussion protocol ever since. Willard said Aiken’s chances to return this season are looking dire.
“He hasn’t practiced,” Willard said. “I haven’t seen any improvement. If he could practice and jump in, maybe. But it’s been a month, almost five weeks. I just don’t see it happening.”
DePaul (12-13, 3-12) surprised Seton Hall with a 96-92 win on Jan. 13 when they met in Chicago when Jalen Terry scored 28 points.
But the Blue Demons have gone 2-7 since then though three of the setbacks are by three or fewer points.
They did push Providence, currently a top-10 team in the country, to overtime in a 76-73 road loss last Saturday. But they followed that with two straight defeats at home, the latter a 71-59 setback to Creighton on Thursday.
“We’ve got to be a little more physical,” coach Tony Stubblefield said, per the DePaulia. “Our physicality has got to improve, especially in this league. They were battling a big guy and they were having a hard enough time trying to block him out, let alone block him out and get the rebound. But we’ll get there.”
Javon Freeman-Liberty recorded 18 points and a season-high 13 rebounds against Creighton but made just 4 of 22 field-goal attempts.
–Field Level Media
