On New Year’s Eve, the ball kept dropping for Seton Hall. 

That meant hearts were dropping for St. John’s. 

After a cold start, Seton Hall got hot and stayed hot, using its shooting first to hang in the game and then to seize it. The Pirates erased a 10-point Red Storm first-half lead and rolled to an 88-66 win in front of 10,481 at Prudential Center in Newark. 

Others celebrated and partied Saturday, but the result made it a bit harder to envision the Red Storm dancing in March. 

In a face-off of the skidding rivals, there was more hope evident from the Pirates. Seton Hall (8-7, 1-3 Big East) snapped a three-game losing streak and found its first conference victory, while St. John’s (11-4, 1-3 Big East) pushed its funk to three games. 

“Most definitely some relief [to win a Big East game],” said Al-Amir Dawes, who led the way for the Pirates with 22 points. “But we know we’re a good team. We have a ton of good guys, talented guys that can ball out.” 

St. John’s, still searching for its first true road win, collapsed for about 30 minutes of the 40-minute game. 

“Very, very, very, very, very disappointed,” said Red Storm coach Mike Anderson, who took blame for not doing a “good job of getting our guys fully prepared.” 

Seton Hall, which looked as if it was headed for the wrong end of a blowout early, ended up connecting for seven 3-pointers, five by Dawes. The Clemson transfer and Newark native went 8-for-14 from the field and looked like the best player on the court as Seton Hall ran its offense through him. In all, the Pirates shot 54.1 percent from the field. 

Dawes’ sharp shooting, as well as major contributions from guard Kadary Richmond (19 points, nine rebounds, six assists), forward Tyrese Samuel (16 points, nine rebounds) and guard Dre Davis (14 points on 6-for-9 shooting), helped Seton Hall wrench the game away from St. John’s. 

The Red Storm led, 29-20, with 6:57 left in the first half. A 22-8 Seton Hall run before the break — culminated by a buzzer-beating triple from Richmond — provided momentum that the Pirates used to jump-start a 12-2 spurt to begin the second half. 

“I felt like we adapted after they were up 10,” said Richmond, part of a Pirates team that shot 62.1 percent in the second half. “We came back out swinging, and they had nothing for us. They’re a competitive team, they played hard.” 

St. John’s might not have agreed. The Pirates, who shot 62.1 percent in the second half, poured it on, while the Red Storm shot 1-for-10 from beyond the arc after the break and fell behind by as many as 25. 

Red Storm big man Joel Soriano said he thought his team “quit.” 

“We gotta be a lot more tough,” said Anderson, whose team has won away from New York City only in neutral-site games against Temple, Syracuse and Florida State. 

After padding its record through a weak nonconference schedule, St. John’s has lost consecutive games to Big East foes Villanova, Xavier and Seton Hall. 

Soriano continued to take a leap in his senior season and dumped in 23 points with 11 rebounds, but the Red Storm could not get to the foul line (going 6-for-11 while the Pirates were 15-for-20), could not find a consistent scorer behind Soriano (only David Jones, with 12 points, and Andre Curbelo with 10 were in double digits) and struggled from deep. 

St. John’s finished just 4-for-18 from 3-point range, which burned Anderson’s team as it struggled to climb out of a deep second-half ditch. 

While St. John’s scuffled, Seton Hall found a rhythm, a lead and then a laugher. 

“We gotta play like that all the time,” said first-year Pirates coach Shaheen Holloway, of Saint Peter’s fame. “We gotta play like our back’s against the wall in this league.”