DePaul, Seton Hall battle for first Big East win

Field Level Media|published: Tue 7th January, 19:12 2025

Dec 31, 2024; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Seton Hall Pirates guard Isaiah Coleman (21) attempts a 3-point shot against the Xavier Musketeers in the second half at the Cintas Center. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

One team will finally notch its first Big East Conference win of the season when DePaul visits Seton Hall on Wednesday in Newark, N.J.

DePaul (9-6, 0-4) started its season 7-0 under new coach Chris Holtmann but has yet to translate that apparent improvement into conference play. The Blue Demons have lost two blowouts and two closer games in the Big East.

When hosting then-No. 11 UConn on New Year's Day, they fell behind early but cut a 22-point deficit to nine during the second half. Their shooting improved down the stretch before falling 81-68 to the Huskies.

"We gotta keep growing. We've got to learn from this, we've got to put ourselves in better position than what we did in the first half, and that's what's in front of us right now," Holtmann said after that game.

DePaul didn't manage to build on that three days later at Villanova, when the Wildcats ran away 100-56.

As a result, the Blue Demons have lost 36 straight Big East regular-season games dating to January 2023. In fact, DePaul's last conference win of any kind came when it clipped Seton Hall 66-65 in the 2023 Big East tournament.

Jacob Meyer paces the Blue Demons with 14.2 points per game and Isaiah Rivera adds 10.9 ppg. Both are shooting at least 41 percent from 3-point range, but the team has made just 15 of 63 attempts from deep over the past three games after a torrid shooting start to the season.

Seton Hall (5-9, 0-3) has lost five games in a row following an uncompetitive 94-72 loss at Xavier on New Year's Eve. The Pirates have had a week off between games to regroup.

Coach Shaheen Holloway sounded frustrated with the state of his team when giving his postgame radio interview that day. He said the Pirates struggled to practice because "everybody's got something wrong with them" injury-wise.

"If you've got to coach effort and toughness, you ain't going to win games, and that's what I'm dealing with right now," Holloway said. "It's amazing, guys are hurt, they can play in a game but they can't practice."

Isaiah Coleman has led the Pirates in scoring for five straight games and averages team highs of 14.3 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. Seton Hall gave freshman guard Jahseem Felton his first start against Xavier, and he finished with nine points in 18 minutes.

--Field Level Media