Seton Hall @ Creighton

Who will WIN this matchup?

Seton Hall Pirates (15-9)

@ Creighton Bluejays (13-12)

Current odds:

Seton Hall Pirates: (+180)

Creighton Bluejays: (-220)

• The line for this game is Creighton by 5 points.

• Seton Hall laid the groundwork for what appeared to be the beginning of the school’s fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance with a strong start, but an inability to win away from home during Big East action has ninth-year coach Kevin Willard’s team flirting with bubble status. The Pirates hope to end a five-game road slide Sunday when they attempt to beat Creighton for the second time in eight days. Picked to finish eighth in the 10-team conference by league coaches in late October, Seton Hall stunned many with a 10-1 surge from late November through early January that included a championship run in the Wooden Legacy, an overtime upset of No. 5 Kentucky and another resume-building victory at Maryland. The Pirates have won only four of nine since then, however, with all but one of their losses over that stretch coming away from home. Seton Hall turned in its most complete performance during league play Wednesday, following up last weekend’s five-point win over the Bluejays with a 90-75 triumph over Georgetown.

• Creighton, which is in a three-way tie for last place but only two games out of third in the tightly packed Big East, is coming off a winless road trip in which it dropped a pair of overtime affairs, and lost all three games by seven points or fewer, including at conference-leading Villanova.

• Myles Powell (22.0 points) is the conference’s second-leading scorer and posted his fifth 30-point game of the season versus the Hoyas, sinking all 10 of his free-throw attempts for the second straight contest to extend his streak at the foul line to 25 in a row. Senior forward Michael Nzei (9.6 points, 5.0 rebounds) enjoyed one of his best all-around performances of the season against the league’s best rebounding team, finishing with 18 points and nine boards (eight offensive). Sophomore guard Myles Cale (9.7, 4.5), who scored a combined 40 points versus Kentucky and Maryland but was mostly inconsistent otherwise throughout the early part of the season, tallied 17 points Wednesday and has topped 13 in four of his last six outings.

• Junior forward Martin Krampelj (12.8 points, 6.7 rebounds) compiled a career-high 25 points and season-best 11 rebounds in the first meeting against the Pirates and is averaging 16.3 points and 8.2 boards over his last 15 outings (7.4, 4.4 over the first 10 games, respectively). Ty-Shon Alexander (team-high 16.4 points) has made at least one 3-pointer in 28 straight contests – tied for the second-longest streak in school history – and has buried 76 for the season, second only to Kyle Korver (100) for the most by a Creighton sophomore. The Bluejays continued their recent trend of ratcheting up their defense Wednesday against Xavier, setting season highs with 12 steals – including a career-high four by Alexander – and seven blocked shots.

• Sunday begins a stretch in which Seton Hall plays three of four on the road before it wraps up the regular season with home contests against No. 10 Marquette and No. 13 Villanova.

• The Bluejays have held their opponents to an average of 61.8 points over the last four contests (82.5 points allowed over their first eight Big East games).

• The Pirates are 9-0 this season when Powell scores at least 25 points.