Seton Hall @ Iowa State preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 29, 2019 ) Seton Hall 84, Iowa State 76

Iowa State and Seton Hall have each played basketball for over 100 years, but their paths had never crossed until the day after Thanksgiving in the Bahamas last month. The 15th-ranked Pirates return from a long layoff to face the Cyclones for the second time in nine days on Sunday when they visit Iowa State as part of the inaugural Big East/Big 12 Battle.

Seton Hall was unable to hold a 19-point lead in the second half of its opening-round 71-69 loss against No. 14 Oregon in the Battle 4 Atlantis, but coach Kevin Willard's squad rebounded with a 25-point victory over Southern Miss and an eight-point win over Iowa State in the fifth-place game of the event. "I said (the Oregon loss) doesn't stop where we are as a program, where we are as a team. I said the only thing that stops us is if we don't get two wins. And they responded tremendously," Willard told reporters after beating the Cyclones. Iowa State finished 1-2 in the Bahamas - both losses coming against ranked teams - but got back on track with Wednesday's 79-61 victory over Missouri-Kansas City. The Cyclones have won 11 straight non-conference contests at home while the Pirates' only two losses this season have come in games in which they gave up late leads to ranked opponents.

TV: 9 p.m. ET, ESPN2

ABOUT SETON HALL (6-2): Potential All-American and Naismith Award candidate Myles Powell, who ranks seventh in the country in scoring (23.4 points) and fourth in 3-pointers per game (3.9), set the Battle 4 Atlantis record for most points during a single tournament with 74, including 24 against Iowa State. Junior 6-11 forward Sandro Mamukelashvili (12.3 points, 5.3 rebounds) is the Pirates' only other double-digit scorer and proved to be a handful versus the Cyclones, finishing with a season-high 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-4 beyond the arc. Despite committing a season-high four turnovers, senior guard Quincy McKnight (9.5 points, team-high 4.4 assists) also enjoyed his best game of the tournament against Iowa State with 12 points, five assists and three steals.

ABOUT IOWA STATE (5-3): Tyrese Haliburton (16.1 points, 8.6 assists, 6.0 rebounds, 3.0 steals), who is the only player in the nation with at least 120 points, 65 assists, 45 rebounds and 20 steals, has twice as many games (four) with 12 points, seven assists and three steals than any Division I player. Fellow sophomore guard Rasir Bolton (15.1 points) led the Cyclones with 20 points versus the Pirates last month and is averaging 20.3 points on 56.3 percent shooting over the last three contests. Michael Jacobson (9.6 points, 7.3 rebounds) was held scoreless for the first time this season against Seton Hall but responded with 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting and added a career-high tying three steals in 28 minutes against UMKC.

TIP-INS

1. The Cyclones have won five of their last six non-conference games against ranked opponents at home and are 23-9 in their last 32 contests in Hilton Coliseum versus Top 25 foes overall.

2. The Pirates shot at least 40 percent beyond the arc in all three games at the Battle 4 Atlantis, finishing at 44.4 percent during the three-day tournament.

3. Via his points and assists, Haliburton is responsible for 43 percent of Iowa State's offensive production this season.

PREDICTION: Seton Hall 78, Iowa State 75