Finley Bizjack scored 25 points and Butler made a season high 33 free throws to upset No. 25 Seton Hall 77-66 on Saturday afternoon at Newark, N.J.
It was the second straight loss for the Pirates (14-4, 4-3 Big East) while Butler (11-7, 2-5) ended a four-game losing streak.
The teams combined for 46 fouls and shot 76 free throws. Butler finished 33 of 41 from the line, while Seton Hall was 17 of 25.
Azavier Robinson had 14 points for Butler while Michael Ajayi added 13. A.J. Staton-McCray had 17 points to lead Seton Hall, while Najai Hines added 11 points with 16 rebounds and Mike Williams III also had 11 points.
Bizjack was the only Butler player to make a 3-pointer, going 4 of 7 from distance. Seton Hall finished 3 of 17 (17.6%) from 3-point range.
After rallying from double-digit deficits to beat Marquette, Creighton and Georgetown, the Pirates faced 49-32 deficit with 15:59 remaining. They cut the deficit to 63-57 after a pair of free throws by Staton-McCray with 4:02 left.
Ajayi made two free throws for Butler with 3:39 remaining to push the lead back up to eight. Drayton Jones made two more for Butler for a 67-57 lead with 3:06 left. After a jumper by Budd Clark for Seton Hall, Jones made two more free throws with 2:16 left to give the Bulldogs a 69-59 lead.
After a dunk by Hines, Bizjack shook loose in the lane and sank a turnaround jumper to give Butler a 71-61 lead with 1:17 left and end all hopes for another Seton Hall comeback. Butler scored 18 of its last 22 points from the free-throw line.
Clark left the game for several minutes in the first half with a thigh injury. With Clark on the bench, the Pirates built a 16-9 lead after eight minutes, but Butler dominated the rest of the half.
The Bulldogs went on an 11-4 run to even the score at 20-20 and Bizjack hit back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 26-20 and never trailed again. The Pirates had just two field goals in the final seven minutes and Butler led 34-24 at half.
–Field Level Media
