Box Score

Visiting Seton Hall closed the game on a 23-7 run to spoil Senior Day Saturday afternoon at Hinkle Fieldhouse, taking a 70-64 win over No. 13/15 Butler. The Bulldogs recognized their six seniors in a postgame ceremony after concluding the regular season with a 23-7 mark, including 12-6 in BIG EAST play.
 
Butler had already secured the No. 2 seed in next week's BIG EAST Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York City prior to today's game.
 
"This is a disappointing loss," said Butler coach Chris Holtmann. "Seton Hall got to more loose balls than we did and made some threes when we got scrambling defensively in the second half. We wanted to win this one for our fans, and especially our seniors. Disappointing that we couldn't get it done today."
 
Kelan Martin led Butler with 19 points and six rebounds, his third consecutive game leading the Bulldogs in both scoring and rebounding. Senior Andrew Chrabascz had a game-high five assists, the third time in the last three games that he has paced the Bulldogs in that category.
 
A Martin three-pointer with 7:03 to play gave the Bulldogs their largest lead of the game at 57-47. Seton Hall took a timeout at that point and quickly responded with a 9-0 run to pull within one at 57-56. Now trailing 63-61, Martin's three-pointer with 1:58 remaining gave Butler a 64-63 lead, but the Bulldogs would not score again as Seton Hall posted the final seven points.
 
Desi Rodriguez (21 points) and Angel Delgado (20 points and 16 rebounds) led the Pirates' effort. Seton Hall is now 20-10 on the season and their 10-8 BIG EAST record secured the No. 5 seed in the upcoming BIG EAST Tournament.
 
Seton Hall opened the second half by making only four of 18 attempts from the field. In the stretch after Butler took its 10-point lead, the Pirates made 7-of-8 down the stretch. Seton Hall shot 49 percent for the game and had a 35-24 rebounding advantage.
 
Butler shot 52 percent in the first half, but only 31 percent in the second 20 minutes to finish at 40 percent for the game. Avery Woodson had 13 points for the Bulldogs, with all 13 coming in the first half. Kethan Savage added nine points.
 
A back-and-forth first half ended with a 38-35 Butler lead. Seton Hall captured the first eight points of the game before a 15-0 run gave Butler a 22-14 lead. The teams traded smaller runs each way leading into the half.
 
The game marked the final Hinkle Fieldhouse performance for the team's six seniors – Chrabascz, Savage, Woodson, Tyler Lewis, Steven Bennett, and Trey Pettus.
 
The Bulldogs open BIG EAST Tournament play Thursday in the quarterfinals. Butler will play the winner of Wednesday's first-round game between No. 7 seed Xavier and No. 10 seed DePaul. Butler's game on Thursday tips at 7 p.m. on FS1.