BOX SCORE (.html)
BOX SCORE (.pdf)
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. The Seton Hall women’s basketball team fell to St. John’s on Sunday afternoon, 89-84, despite a career-high 31 points from sophomore Ebonie Williams (Hagerstown, Md.). The Pirates (14-7, 2-6) have dropped four straight in the BIG EAST.
Williams was 11-for-18 from the floor and 6-for-6 from the line as she registered the sixth best single-game scoring performance in school history. Four other Pirates also reached double figures, led by freshman Kandice Green (Baltimore, Md.), who had 13 points and 12 rebounds for her fourth career double-double.
Monique McLean paced the Red Storm (14-6, 2-5) with 25 points.
A fastbreak layup by junior Nicole Emery (Baldwin, N.Y.) gave the Hall an early 10-2 lead at the 16:15 mark, forcing a Red Storm timeout. St. John’s responded with five straight before the Pirates put together a 10-0 run, highlighted by a Williams’ 3-pointer, to take a 20-7 advantage.
Senior Jadis Rhodin (Lakehurst, N.J.) buried a deep 3-pointer with 8:08 left to put Seton Hall in front, 29-16. The Red Storm rallied once again, using a 17-2 spurt to take a 33-31 lead after Kelly McManmon drilled a triple with 4:18 on the clock.
A putback by Rhodin put the Pirates back ahead, 35-33, with less than three minutes before halftime. The teams went into the break tied at 39.
McLean and Joy McCorvey connected to give the Red Storm a four-point lead out of intermission before Williams got Seton Hall on the board with a jumper, making it 43-41. St. John’s extended the lead to 51-43 with 15:50 left after another McManmon 3-pointer, prompting a Seton Hall timeout.
McLean sank a backdoor layup to stretch the lead to 10, and the advantage reached 14 twice over as the second half progressed. Rhodin knocked down a 3-pointer with 11 minutes left to make it 58-48, and the Hall got to within 62-55 on a Williams trifecta with 7:55 remaining.
Sky Lindsay gave the Red Storm a 69-59 lead with a 16-footer in transition and five and a half minutes to go, but Williams kept the Hall close by sinking a 3-pointer on the other end. The Pirates cut the deficit to five on three occasions, with Williams dropping in a bucket in the lane to make it 75-70 with three minutes left.
Williams sank two from the stripe to make it a three-point game with two minutes remaining, but McLean responded with a layup on the other end for the Red Storm. Green scored on the inside for the Hall, making it 79-76, followed by two McLean free throws as St. John’s continued to answer.
Williams hit a leaner on the baseline with a minute left to cut it to 81-78, but McLean was true once again from the line to push the lead back to five with 47.7 seconds on the clock. Senior Noteisha Womack (Washington, D.C.) later brought the Hall to within 84-80 with on two foul shots with 31.7 seconds remaining, but the Pirates would get no closer down the stretch.
St. John’s shot 51.0 percent for the game while the Hall hit 43.1 percent. In a foul-plagued battle, the Red Storm knocked down 33-of-44 free throws to the Pirates’ 22-of-29.
Rhodin came off the bench to net 11 points for Seton Hall. Womack finished with 10 points and nine rebounds, while Emery had 10 points and four boards.
The Pirates are back in action on Wednesday at West Virginia, with tip-off slated for 8:00 p.m.
