Seton Hall 73

Iona 59

Seton Hall came into yesterday’s New Year’s Eve matinee confident, and it showed. Iona came into the tilt overconfident, and that showed too, as the Gaels were outhustled, outmuscled and outplayed in a 73-59 Hall laugher at the Meadowlands.

The Pirates, building toward Wednesday’s Big East opener against St. John’s, held Iona to season-lows in points and shooting (36.8 percent). They also held Steve Burtt – whose 24.6 ppg average was third-best in the country – to 7-of-20 from the floor. It was by far the Hall’s best effort of the year, and the Gaels’ worst.

“They out-toughed us, out-hustled us and out-played us,” said Iona coach Jeff Ruland, who saw his team come out flat and lose back-to-back games after only the second 7-0 start in school history.

“When the ball goes up, you’ve got to compete. You don’t get ‘W’s from reading the press clippings and all the other [stuff]. Maybe it’s something we needed to get us back to reality. We’ll get back on the court, crack the whip.”

Yesterday it was the Hall (8-3) that put on the beating, leading by as many as 20 points. The offense was led by seniors Kelly Whitney (22 points) and point guard Don Copeland (17 points and six assists), but the defense was the story, forcing seven straight misses and three turnovers in a game-changing 11-1, first-half run.

“The best confidence-builder is to win and play well, and the last two games we’ve done that,” said Hall coach Louis Orr. “The last three games, we can’t play a whole lot better defensively. We’re starting to come together. Those guys have got a good chemistry. They want it. They want to win.”

Apparently so, after holding their fifth straight foe under 40 percent.

Whitney’s layup made it 20-5 7:41 in, at which point Iona had shot 2-of-10 and committed five turnovers. The poor shooting reached 3-of-18 with seven turnovers, and Brian Lang’s basket pushed it to 24-7 with 9:20 left in the first half. And 6-7 Stan Gaines (nine points, 13 boards) played withering defense to stifle Burtt.

“That’s what I do. I pride myself on being able to guard anybody from 5-10 guards to big men. It’s all about thinking the game, the mental game,” said Gaines, who took away Burtt’s left hand and forced him right and into the Hall’s active, helping big men.

It was a shockingly poor performance from an Iona team that had beaten them their last two times they faced each other and had opened 7-0, including an upset at No. 22 Iowa State, and dropped a tough six-point decision to No. 19 Kentucky.

“They just whupped on us,” said guard Ricky Soliver, who had 17 points. “I can’t even describe it. It was ugly. They just outhustled us. We weren’t ready to play; that’s just the bottom line, and they whipped on us.”

As they have the MAAC, now 4-0 against those clubs. But they’re 0-3 against teams from BCS conferences, and they’ll learn far more about themselves Wednesday against the Red Storm.

brian.lewis@nypost.com