KANSAS CITY The Seton Hall women’s basketball team opened the season with a 64-50 loss to
Kansas at the WBCA/Metrosports Classic on Saturday afternoon at Municipal Auditorium. The Pirates were led by senior Heta Korpivaara (
Espoo, Finland) who scored a game-high 18 points to go along with five rebounds.
Seton Hall took a 36-34 lead with 11:51 to play when Korpivaara hit a short jumper to cap an 11-4 run for SHU. That was the last lead of the game for the Pirates, however, as the Jayhawks tied it on the next possession and held SHU to just one field goal over the next seven minutes until Korpivaara hit another jumper to make it 53-45 with 4:42 to play.
The closest Seton Hall managed to get after surrendering the lead was at 41-39 following a foul shot by sophomore Shantel Brown (Lakewood, N.J.) with 8:06 to play. The Jayhawks held the Pirates to just three field goals over the last 11:51 to pull away from the Pirates for the final margin.
The first half saw the Pirates come out on fire as a layup from Korpivaara and two jumpers from freshman Nicole Emery (Baldwin, N.Y.) helped build a 6-2 lead less than four minutes into the game. The Jayhawks came right back and took a 9-8 lead on a jumper from LaChelda Jacobs, but SHU was undaunted as it went on a 7-0 run to go up 15-9 at the 9:08 mark.
Kansas eventually tied the game at 19-19 at the 3:33 mark and neither team led by more than a basket the rest of the half. Danielle McCray gave KU the lead at the half when she collected a miss and put back a layup as the horn sounded for a 25-23 advantage at the break.
Monique Blake (Union, N.J.) was the only other Pirate in double-figures as they shot 34.6 percent as a team, but just 1-of-16 (6.3 percent) from three-point range. Sophomore Brittney Messina (Massapequa, N.Y.) hit the only three of the game, en route to five points. Emery, Brown and Ela Mukosiej (Bialystok, Poland) each added four points.
Kansas’ offense was paced by Marija Zinic’s 15 points. Morris and McCray added eight and Shaquina Mosley pitched in with nine points. The Jayhawks shot 36.9 percent from the field, just 3-of-15 from the arc, but took advantage of the Pirates in the paint. KU held a 43-38 rebounding advantage and turned that into 14 second-chance points for the difference in the game. SHU was also done in by 20 turnovers, to just 12 by Kansas.
Seton Hall will face either Missouri State or Iowa in the consolation game of the WBCA/Metrosports Classic on Sunday, Nov. 12, at 2:00 p.m.
