Women's Basketball Edges Massachusetts, 61-58
11/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Tenacious defense keyed a second-half rally that gave the Seton Hall women's basketball team a 61-58 win over Massachusetts in the final game of the Anaconda Sports "The Rock" Seton Hall Classic on Sunday.
Junior Kandice Green (Baltimore, Md.) posted her third straight double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Sophomore Brittany Morris (Raleigh, N.C.) netted a career-high 12 points for the Pirates (2-2).
Megan Zullo dropped in 25 points for the Minutewomen (0-4).
Morris sank a three at the 18:29 mark for the first points of the contest, and she later followed her own made free throw with a score off a turnover to make it 6-0. Cerie Mosgrove got the Minutewomen on the board with a bucket, but freshman Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) answered with an 18-footer to make it 8-2 and force a UMass timeout.
Talen Watson dropped in a three-pointer to cut the Pirates' lead to 10-9 with 12:11 remaining, and she hit again a minute later to give UMass its first lead of the day. Stephanie Lawrence followed with a transition layup to make it 14-10, and the Hall called timeout. Freshman Jazzmine Johnson (Glen Dale, Md.) scored in the lane for the Pirates, but Emilie Teuscher sank a three and Zullo made a leaning jumper to push it to 19-12 with 8:41 left.
Zullo connected from deep to give the Minutewomen a 22-14 advantage at the 7:22 mark, and Teuscher pushed it to a 10-point lead with a baseline jumper. Six straight points from Kandice Green cut it to 24-20, and freshman Elaine Swaby (Paterson, N.J.) made it a two-point game with a short jump hook in the lane. Zullo ended the 8-0 run with a three-pointer, but Green sank a fallaway on the ensuing possession to make it 27-24 with 1:29 to play. The Minutewomen would take a 29-26 lead into halftime, despite 16 first-half turnovers.
UMass twice led by seven early in the second half, but Johnson buried a three for the Hall that made it 38-35 with 13:15 to go. Swaby followed with a strong baseline drive to cut it to one, and sophomore Alexandra Maseko (Harare, Zimbabwe) brought it back to one again with a putback. Down four, Morris hit a corner three for the Hall that made it 43-42 with just over 10 minutes on the clock.
Simmons put the Pirates back in front with a 16-footer, but Mosgrove quickly answered with a three-pointer for a 46-44 UMass lead. Later, Simmons drove for score before hitting a three the next time down to give the Pirates a 52-50 edge with five and a half minutes left.
Johnson rattled home a triple to give the Hall a 55-52 lead, forcing a timeout by the Minutewomen with 3:48 to play, and lead was up to six when junior Whitney Wood (Santa Margarita, Cailf.) drained a 15-footer as the shot clock expired with less than two minutes remaining. Zullo made it 58-55 with three free throws, but junior Jasmine Crew (Camden, N.J.) pushed it back to four on a foul shot with 19.5 seconds on the clock. Zullo nailed one last three with before Crew iced the game with two free throws and just 1.6 seconds left.
Seton Hall finished with 24 points off 23 Massachusetts' turnovers, offsetting the 48.9 percent shooting of the Minutewomen.
