Seton Hall University
Wyoming
Pirates Fall to Wyoming in Malibu
11/23/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Senior Brittany Morris (Raleigh, N.C.), who has led Seton Hall in scoring in all five games this season, paced the Pirates again with 13 points, and redshirt sophomore point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) also finished in double figures with 11 points and tied her career-high with five assists.
Seton Hall turned in an excellent first half of play, leading Wyoming, 27-20, at the break, but a long scoreless drought in the second half allowed the Cowgirls to come all the way back from an 11-point deficit.
Seton Hall took its largest lead of the game, 33-22, early in the second half as Simmons found Morris for a transition three-point basket with 17:16 to play.
Seton Hall led 35-26 thanks to a Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) layup but Wyoming charged back, closing to within one point, 35-34, following a bucket from Chelan Landry.
Simmons answered that score with a driving lay-up to end a 4:30 Seton Hall field goal drought, but Wyoming scored the next 11 points to take a 45-37 lead.
Simmons, who scored eight of Seton Hall's final 10 points of the game, pulled the Pirates back within two scores, 47-41, by slashing through the lane for a fast-break lay-up with 3:39 to play, but that was as close as Seton Hall would get down the stretch.
After shooting just 23.8 percent (5-of-21) in the first half, Wyoming came out and shot 41.7 percent (10-of-24) from the floor in the second period. The Cowgirls also held a substantial lead in free throw opportunities, shooting 23-of-33 (69.7 percent) from the stripe, compared to just six free throw attempts for The Hall.
Landry scored 13 points to lead three players in double figures for Wyoming.
With a balanced offensive attack and tremendous defensive execution, Seton Hall led by as many as 10 points in the opening half and took a 27-20 advantage into the locker room.
The Pirates forced 16 Wyoming turnovers over the first 20 minutes of play and led 15-3 in points off turnovers, continuing what has been a trend in each game this season for the Pirates. Eight different players scored for The Hall in the opening half, with Morris leading the way with eight points.
Seton Hall forced six turnovers in the early part of the game to take a 9-3 lead on a triple from Morris fewer than four minutes into the action.
Wyoming scored the next four points to close within two, 9-7, but that was as close as the Cowgirls would get as senior Terry Green (Brentwood, N.Y.) intercepted a Kaitlyn Mileto pass and streaked all the way down the court for a fast-break lay-up to put the Pirates back up by four.
Green's bucket sparked what turned into a 12-5 Seton Hall run over the next six minutes, which was capped off by a Richardson-Smith three-pointer with a little over six minutes remaining in the half.
Junior Janee Johnson (Matthews, N.C) hit a turnaround jumper in the paint with two minutes to play in the period to give Seton Hall its largest lead of the game, 27-17, two of the Pirates' 14 first half points in the paint.
Seton Hall (2-3) returns to action at the Pepperdine Thanksgiving Tournament on Saturday, Nov. 24, when it will face either South Dakota or Pepperdine at 1 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. (PT).
