Xavier vs. Seton Hall final score: Pirates pick up huge win over Musketeers

The Seton Hall Pirates found themselves in a must-win situation Wednesday night against the Xavier Musketeers at the Prudential Center, and the Pirates got the job done, winning by a 71-64 margin.

Angel Delgado recorded 25 points and 13 rebounds for his 22nd double-double of the season. If you were to look at a list of Big East players to record 22 double-doubles in a season, it would be a very small list. Delgado showed why he’s the nation’s leading rebounder on Wednesday night.

Desi Rodriguez also excelled for Seton Hall with 22 points in 37 minutes played. Rodriguez and Delgado both made up for the lack of production from Khadeen Carrington, who had just five points on 1-9 shooting.

For the Musketeers, JP Macura led the team with 22 points and Trevon Bluiett returned from a two-game absence with an ankle injury to deliver 14 points on 5-12 shooting. Bluiett looked a bit slow to get back into the action, which is to be expected when you miss time with an injury. Xavier has nothing to worry about in regards to its NCAA Tournament status, so the top priority has to be continuing to get Bluiett back to 100%.

While Seton Hall still has a bit of work to do, having games against DePaul, Georgetown, and Butler should assure the Pirates finish the season no worse than 9-9 in Big East play. They would avoid playing Wednesday night in the Big East Tournament if that’s the case, and likely need to just win one game there to feel safe. It’s going to be tough to deny a 20-win team from the NCAA Tournament field with how bad the bubble is this season.

Xavier will return to action Sunday as they host Butler, while Seton Hall will be back at it against the aforementioned Blue Demons on Saturday.