NCAAB Game Preview - DePaul at Seton Hall

Wed Jan 29, 2020 6:30 PM EST

Seton Hall remains the lone undefeated team in Big East play. That perfect start to the league season began with a win at DePaul on New Year's Eve.

The No. 10 Pirates look to improve to 8-0 in the conference while aiming to extend their overall winning streak to 10 on Wednesday night as the struggling Blue Demons visit Newark, N.J.

Seton Hall (15-4, 7-0 Big East), which has not lost since Dec. 14 at Rutgers, most recently won 10 straight games during the 1992-93 season. The Pirates haven't won eight in a row within the league since 2002-03.

The Pirates stayed hot by shooting a league-season-best 57.8 percent during a 73-64 home victory over Providence in Seton Hall's recent contest, on Jan. 22. The Pirates prevailed while getting just 14 points from star Myles Powell (now averaging 21.9 points a game), snapping his string of four games with at least 23 points.

Romaro Gill had team highs of 17 points and eight blocks, plus six rebounds. Jared Rhoden scored 15 for the Pirates. The 7-foot-2 Gill is averaging about 14 points over six games in 2020, and has 14 blocks in the past two contests.

"I think we're showing everybody across the country that we're not just the Myles Powell show," Powell told nj.com.

Gill had just six points, but blocked four shots, during a 74-66 victory at DePaul on Dec. 30 to tip off the Big East season. Powell finished with 27 points and five steals as the Pirates overcame a six-point halftime hole to outscore the Blue Demons 43-29 in the second half.

Powell has 51 points while shooting 45.2 percent from the field in the past two games vs. DePaul.

The Blue Demons (13-7, 1-6) entered this season's first meeting with Seton Hall sporting a 12-1 non-conference record. However, it's been a much different story within the league, where DePaul beat then-No. 5 Butler 79-66 at home on Jan. 18, but since has dropped consecutive home games to Creighton and St. John's by a combined 28 points.

Charlie Moore scored a team-high 20 points and Paul Reed had 15 with 12 rebounds Saturday against the Red Storm, but the Blue Demons shot 30.8 percent from the field and a dismal 16 percent (4 of 25) from 3-point range. DePaul, 7 for 41 from beyond the arc in the past two games, also allowed St. John's to hit 13 3-pointers.

"A little frustrating," Moore told The DePaulia. "But the team just talked (after the loss to St. John's) about coming together, see what we have to do to come out with wins at the end of the day. So just focus on getting better."

Losers of five straight away from home in the Big East, the Blue Demons have lost 22 consecutive road games against top 10 opponents since the start of the 1996-97 season.

--Field Level Media