Hazell leads Seton Hall past No. 15 St. John's

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Jeremy Hazell scored a season-high 31 points and Seton Hall, the worst 3-point shooting team in the Big East, made a season-best 12 from beyond the arc in an 84-70 victory over No. 15 St. John's on Thursday night, snapping the Red Storm's six-game winning streak.

Freshman Fuquan Edwin had a career-best 19 points for the Pirates (12-17, 6-11), who had lost three straight and five of six.

Dwight Hardy scored 23 points for St. John's (19-10, 11-6), which was one of the hottest teams in the country, having won eight of nine. But the Red Storm fell apart in the final minutes, getting outscored 14-2 over the last 4 minutes that included coach Steve Lavin and senior forward Justin Burrell being ejected in two separate incidents.

The win gave Seton Hall a 2-8 record against ranked teams this season, the other win coming at Syracuse.

Lavin was given two technical fouls by official Joe Lindsey for arguing during a timeout with 1:55 to play and Seton Hall leading 77-68.

Burrell was called for a flagrant foul and was ejected by official John Cahill after he ran down Seton Hall reserve Anali Okoloji with 7.6 seconds left and the outcome definitely decided.

Seton Hall came into the game shooting 28.4 percent from 3-point range and the Pirates made 7 of 11 from long range in taking 34-30 halftime lead.

St. John's, which had beaten six teams this season ranked 13th or higher, took its only lead of the second half at 53-49 on a four-point play by Justin Brownlee with 12:19 to play.

The crowd of 9,470 in the Prudential Center seemed ready to sit back and watch the Red Storm pull away to another late-season win but Hazell made three free throws after being fouled taking a 3 and Edwin hit his fifth 3 of the game to make it 55-53 with 11:26 let.

St. John's tied it two more times. Hardy converted a layup with 8:06 left, then missed a free throw for a possible three-point play, leaving it tied at 59.

Jeff Robinson's 3-pointer with 7:46 left gave the Pirates the lead for good.

Edwin sandwiched his fifth and sixth 3s of the game around two free throws by Malik Boothe Boothe to start the Pirates' big closing run.

Seton Hall, which had won seven of its last 10 games against St. John's, finished 12 of 18 from 3-point range (66.7 percent). The Red Storm were 3 of 12 from long range (25 percent). Hazell was 4 of 6 from beyond the arc while Edwin was 5 of 6.

The ejections put a weird ending on the game and left St. John's facing a lot of questions heading into its regular-season finale on Saturday against South Florida. If the Red Storm had won the last two games they would have earned a double-bye in next week's Big East tournament.

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