Women's Basketball Hangs On to Beat Villanova, 51-49

BOX SCORE (.html)
BOX SCORE (.pdf) 

VILLANOVA, Pa. - The Seton Hall women's basketball team improved its winning streak to seven games after defeating Villanova, 51-49, on Tuesday. Only three Wildcats (10-5, 0-3) found their way into the scorer’s column, while the Pirates (11-2, 2-0) used a balanced scoring attack led by senior Ela Mukosiej's (Bialystok, Poland) 10 points.

Junior Noteisha Womack (Washington, D.C.) pulled down 17 rebounds and scored nine points on the night. Sophomore Nicole Emery (Baldwin, N.Y.) also scored nine points on 4-of-5 shooting.

Seton Hall went into the break with a two-point advantage, but Laura Kurcz drilled a three to put Villanova on top, 32-30, with 19:01 remaining. The Wildcats maintained the lead, holding the Pirates scoreless for a 7:14 stretch, but could not muster much offense to keep SHU in the game.

Junior Jadis Rhodin (Lakehurst, N.J.) connected on a jumper to end the Pirate drought, and started a 10-2 spurt to put Seton hall ahead, 49-46, with 3:35 to go. A trey by Lisa Karcic knotted the score, but Mukosiej hit two free-throws make to give the lead back to the Pirates with 2:25 on the clock.

With the score still 51-49, Mukosiej missed the front end of a one-and-one and the Wildcats grabbed the rebound and called a timeout with 0.4 seconds left. Seton Hall deflected the inbound pass, and Villanova did not get a shot off in time as the Pirates notched the win.

The Wildcats jumped out to a quick 12-4 lead to start the game, but Seton Hall went on a 14-4 spurt to go on top, 18-16, with 6:43 left. The lead changed hands three more times in the period, but SHU ended up with a 28-26 lead.

Kurcz scored a game-high 22 points, Stacie Witman had 17, and Lisa Karcic rounded out Villanova's scoring with 10 points.

The Pirates dominated the paint, outscoring the Wildcats, 24-8, while shooting 44.7 percent for the game.

Seton Hall will face in-state rivals Rutgers in Piscataway on January 12. Tip-off is set for 2:00 p.m.