SETON HALL PIRATES VS. HAWAII RAINBOW WARRIORS

Time: 11:30 p.m. ET

TV: ESPN2

Watch Online: WatchESPN

Thanks to a tremendous effort by Myles Powell, the Seton Hall Pirates vanquished the Grand Canyon Antelopes on Thursday. Powell put up 40 points in the win, becoming only the third Pirate since the 2010-11 season to hit the 40-point threshold, joining Sterling Gibbs and his former teammate Khadeen Carrington in that regard.

Powell will hope to keep up his prodigious efforts out west when Seton Hall takes the floor again in the 2018 Wooden Legacy. The Pirates’ next opponent is the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors of the Big West Conference.

Hawaii is 4-1 at this point and just took down the Utah Utes in their first round game on Thursday evening. Their one loss came at home to the North Texas Mean Green but looks like an anomaly in the early goings. Hawaii has scored an average of 86.8 points in their four victories, including 90 against both Utah and Humboldt State.

Hawaii has been extremely efficient to start the season. They have four players whose eFG% and TS% are in the 60s. Their leaders so far in those categories have been both Zigmars Raimo and Brocke Stepteau. Raimo leads the team in eFG% at 66.7 percent, while Stepteau has put up a TS% of 68.8 percent. Stepteau is the team’s best perimeter shooter so far, too, going 8-for-16 from beyond the arc. The team has been primarily dominant inside though, shooting at a rate of 60 percent, which puts them in the Top 20 in the nation thus far.

Raimo and Stepteau aren’t the team’s leading scorers, however. That’s Eddie Stansberry and Jack Purchase. Stansberry and Purchase are scoring 13.4 and 13 points per game in the early goings, They’ve done so somewhat inefficiently, as Stansberry is shooting 37.5 percent while Purchase is a bit better, at 46.8 percent. These four have been the primary points of attack for Hawaii and Seton Hall will have to keep them in check if they want to pick up the win.

It will be interesting to see how Seton Hall plays on the perimeter. Hawaii hasn’t allowed much to fall this season, coming into the game allowing 24.4 percent of 3-pointers to be converted. That ranks 16th best in the nation so far, and it’s not like teams aren’t shooting against them either. 40.2 percent of shots taken against the Rainbow Warriors have been from outside, so Seton Hall will have to do their best to get open looks against a very strong perimeter defense. Their weakness has been inside, so perhaps Seton Hall will use that to open things up eventually.

Seton Hall’s a heavy favorite on KenPom, with a win probability of 80 percent. So this should turn into a victory and move them one step closer to winning the Wooden Legacy. Will they pick it up? Tune in late tonight to find out!