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Villanova routs Seton Hall

Jan 9, 2014 - 4:10 AM Newark, NJ (SportsNetwork.com) - Darrun Hilliard nailed four 3-pointers and finished with 19 points to help lift eighth-ranked Villanova past an undermanned Seton Hall team, 83-67, from Prudential Center.

JayVaughn Pinkston reached the 1,000-point plateau for his career, finishing with 17 on 5-of-10 shooting and grabbing six rebounds as the Wildcats (14-1, 3-0 Big East) won their third consecutive game. Ryan Arcidiacono supplied 14 points and Josh Hart added 11 with five boards off the bench for Villanova.

"It wasn't pretty at times," said Villanova head coach Jay Wright, "but we were able to grind it out and get a victory. That's what you have to do if you want to be a good team."

Brian Oliver paced Seton Hall (10-6, 1-2) with 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting from beyond the arc, while Sterling Gibbs had 13 points and a career-high eight assists.

The Pirates, who lost back-to-back games for the first time this season, played without big men Eugene Teague and Aaron Geramipoor and swingman Fuquan Edwin because of injuries.

"Obviously, our three best defenders are out so that kind of hurt us," said Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard. "I was proud of our guys. We had some turnovers, we had some tough shots. They made some tough shots that changed the momentum of the game."

Villanova took control early with its hot three-point shooting. Arcidiacono nailed the Wildcats' sixth trey in a little over 10 minutes to make it 28-17.

As the Wildcats cooled off, Seton Hall closed the gap to 35-30 on two Gibbs free throws with 2:20 to play in the opening half.

Villanova wound up sinking only one more three over the final 9:39 and carried a 38-32 lead into the break.

The Pirates pulled to within five again at 44-39 less than five minutes into the second half, but Hart followed up a steal with a dunk to put Villanova up 59-47 at the midway point.

Villanova maintained a double-digit lead for the majority of the contest as Seton Hall got no closer than nine points.

Game Notes

Seton Hall halted a 10-game losing streak to Villanova with a 66-65 win last year in Newark ... The Wildcats shot 57.1 percent from the floor in the second half and made 19-of-22 free throws for the game ... Patrik Auda had 13 points for the Pirates, who committed 16 turnovers.