The Seton Hall Pirates took control of the game at the Xavier Musketeers home court with a 15-0 run at the end of the first half and extended the lead to a 85-68 win.
"The were the tougher team. It wasn't even close," Xavier coach Travis Steele said after the game. "I told my guys before the game, they will try to bully you on both ends of the court and they did."
"We are going to get this fixed," Steele said. "This is on me."
The much bigger Pirates dominated the back boards, hauling in 42 rebounds to the Musketeers, 28.
Xavier led by six in the first seven minutes of the game.
"Even then we didn't set the tone," Steele said.
Tyrese Samuel tied the game a 20-20 with a 3-point shot at the 11:45 mark. Zach Freemantle put Xavier back in front with a put back three minutes later. Sandro Mamukelashvili, the 6'11 forward from Tbisi, Georgia in eastern Europe, made a 3-point shot with 5:37 left and Seton Hall never looked back.
By halftime the Pirates led 44-28. They built that advantage to 27 points with 2:47 left and the Pirates won their fourth conference game after falling to Providence in overtime, 80-77 on December 20.
"I gave our guys some time off and I think that helped us," Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said.
Xavier lost for the second game in a row after starting the season 8-0. The Musketeers are 1-2 in the Big East. Seton Hall is 7-4 and 4-1 in the conference.
Six Seton Hall players scored in double figures led by Mamukelashvili with 18. Jared Rhoden scored 14. Bryce Aiken added 11. Myles Cale, Takal Molson and Samuel contributed 10 each.
Zach Freemantle led all scorers with 20 points. Josh Carter and Ben Stanley scored 12 for Xavier.
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