#18 Seton Hall @ St. John’s

Who will WIN this matchup?

#18 Seton Hall Pirates (13-4)

@ St. John’s Red Storm (12-6)

Current odds:

#18 Seton Hall Pirates: (-200)

St. John’s Red Storm: (+170)

• The line for this game is Seton Hall by 5 points.

• The rigors of a rugged non-conference schedule appear to have been perfect preparation for Seton Hall, the lone unbeaten team in the Big East despite playing three of its first five league games away from home. Fresh off a victory at No. 5 Butler, the 18th-ranked Pirates will receive another road test against St. John’s on Saturday afternoon. Seton Hall extended its winning streak to seven games in impressive fashion, erasing a 10-point halftime deficit at Butler to start Big East play 5-0 overall and 3-0 on the road for the first time. “I love how we’ve gone out and handled the road,” Pirates coach Kevin Willard told reporters. “We didn’t have our eyes looking up (at the crowd). It was like, ‘OK, let’s get our breath.’ It was a nice feeling.”

• The Red Storm have had a rocky start to conference play due to their struggles on the road, suffering their fourth defeat in five games with a 63-58 loss at Providence on Wednesday. “At the end of the day, it was one of those games that we’re going to look back on film and there were a lot of things we could have done a much, much better job,” coach Mike Anderson said after St. John’s matched its season-low point total.

• The Pirates are receiving superb production from their backcourt, led by leading scorer Myles Powell, who had 29 points at Butler and is averaging 25.3 in his last three games to boost his season mark to 22.0 per game. Powell had 26 points in a 78-70 setback against St. John’s last season. Point guard Quincy McKnight recorded a career-high 13 assists to go along with 11 points and seven rebounds Wednesday, giving him 51 assists versus only 11 turnovers during the winning streak.

• Transfer guard Rasheem Dunn put together his two best games of the season in the week prior to the loss at Providence, barely missing two double-doubles while averaging 18.5 points and 8.5 rebounds, but he had zero assists and four turnovers in Wednesday’s loss. Dunn did have three steals and leading scorer LJ Figueroa added five for St. John’s, which ranks fourth nationally with 10.6 per game. Mustapha Heron, the team’s second-leading scorer, is averaging only 8.7 points over the last three games.

• Seton Hall has won six of the last eight in the series, splitting four meetings at Madison Square Garden.

• The Red Storm has registered at least 10 steals in five consecutive games, the longest streak in the nation.

• Pirates C Romaro Gill, averaging 2.9 blocks, is scoring at a clip of 13.8 points in the past four games.