Myles Powell bounced back from a subpar showing to score a game-high 34 points Wednesday as No. 12 Seton Hall raced to a big early lead, then held off a late Georgetown run for a 78-71 Big East Conference win in Washington.

Jared Rhoden added 12 points and nine rebounds for the Pirates (17-5, 9-1 Big East), who upped their conference lead over second-place Villanova to two games. The Wildcats lost 79-76 at Butler on Kamar Baldwin's step-back 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Omer Yurtseven led the Hoyas (13-10, 3-7) with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Jahvon Blair scored 18 points but made only 4 of 16 field-goal tries, and Terrell Allen hit for 11 but canned just 4 of 17 from the floor.

Georgetown played without leading scorer Mac McClung (foot) for the second straight game, and they missed his offense. The Hoyas converted only 23 of 68 shots from the field (33.8 percent), including a pitiful 4 of 21 (19 percent) from the 3-point arc.

Blair's 3-pointer pulled Georgetown within 69-65 with 4:15 left in the game, but Powell and Rhoden answered with layups to restore an eight-point cushion at the 1:54 mark.

Apparently eager to make amends for its first conference loss on Saturday to Xavier, Seton Hall nearly ran Georgetown out of the building in the first four minutes. The Pirates canned 3-pointers on their first four possessions and owned a 16-0 lead after Romaro Gill's jump hook only 3:33 into the game.

However, the Hoyas found some traction as the half went on, working their way back into contention even though Powell scored at will. Coming off a nine-point day against the Musketeers, the Big East Player of the Year candidate scored 15 in the first 10 1/2 minutes, making it 27-14 with 9:38 left on a layup.

Georgetown put together its best stretch of the half over the next seven minutes, pulling within 36-30 on Allen's layup off a steal. But Powell finished off a 21-point half with a three-point play that helped Seton Hall take a 42-32 lead to intermission.

--Field Level Media