Without two of its starters for the majority of the game, Seton Hall picked up a critical road win, 59-50, over St. John's on Wednesday night at Carnesecca Arena.
It marked the Pirates' first win at the Red Storm's on-campus arena since March 1990.
Juniors Jeff Robinson and Robert Mitchell scored 16 and 15 points, respectively. The contributions were much needed after Hazell exited the game for good after just 12 minutes with a cut on his right hand.
Hazell finished with 10 points on 4-6 shooting after hitting two big three-pointers in the first half.
Meanwhile, Harvey was scratched before the game after suffering a bone bruise to his wrist during the final moments of Sunday's win vs. DePaul. He is listed as day-to-day by head coach Bobby Gonzalez according to Matt Sweeney of Seton Hall Athletic Communications.
Sophomore Herb Pope added eight points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Pirates, now 15-9 (6-7) entering another true road test Saturday at No. 8 West Virginia.
Seton Hall fell behind 6-0 in the opening minutes leading to a Gonzalez timeout. From there, it seemed the Pirates' offense showed up.
With about five minutes to go before intermission, both teams were still neck-in-neck and scoring at a rather consistent pace. As the Red Storm and the Hall traded baskets into the final minute, a pair of slam dunks by Pope and Robinson as well as a jumper by Mitchell gave Seton Hall a 28-22 advantage at the half.
In the second half, though, St. John's may have left its offense in the locker room.
Facing a zone defense by Seton Hall, the Red Storm failed to capitalize on any shots or inside looks, albeit open or when surrounded by Pirates on defense.
Seton Hall sustained its halftime lead and, with about eight minutes left to play in regulation, pushed the advantage to 10 for the first time.
Deterring any comeback efforts was St. John's futility from deep range. It took until the final two minutes of the game until the Red Storm were able to hit its first three-pointer, coming from guard Dwight Hardy with 1:45 left to play.
The home team finished just 3-15 from deep and 20-61 overall from the field (32.8 percent). St. John's fell to 14-11 on the season and 4-9 in the Big East.
Seton Hall closed the contest at 42.1 percent from the floor without allowing the Red Storm to take the lead back after halftime. It capped the win with a reverse slam dunk by junior Keon Lawrence, an exclamation point that sent most of the Red Storm crowd heading for the exits.
Seton Hall defeated the DePaul Blue Demons 79-71 on Feb. 14 in a game where the Pirates held the lead from starting tip off to the final buzzer.
"It was another good game for us today because it was our fifth straight Big East win at home," head coach Bobby Gonzalez said.
In the final minutes of the game, DePaul's Michael Bizoukas hit a three pointer and Mac Koshwal finished a put back to cut the Blue Demon's deficit to four.
The Pirates led 73-69 with 20 seconds left to play in the game but closed it out with two foul shots by junior forward Jeff Robinson and layups from junior guards Jeremy Hazell and Keon Lawrence.
"We pretty much controlled the game from the beginning to the end," Gonzalez said.
The Pirates also defeated Notre Dame in a 90-87 victory on Feb. 11.
Brian Wisowaty can be reached at brian.wisowaty@student.shu.edu.
Matthew Bryant can be reached at matthew.bryant@student.shu.edu..
