Seton Hall University
New Orleans
Pirates Dominant in Win Over UNO
12/19/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Redshirt sophomore point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) finished with 12 points and a career-high 10 assists and is now averaging 15.3 points over the last three games. Entering the game her career-high in assists was six, set at Wake Forest earlier this year, but she broke that mark with seven dimes in the first half alone.
Senior Terry Green (Brentwood, N.Y.) found her outside shooting touch, finishing with a game-high 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from long range. Freshman Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas), who was 7-for-12 from the field, had 14 points and senior Brittany Morris (Raleigh, N.C.) had 13 points with four assists, four rebounds and three three-pointers.
The 47-point margin of victory was the most for Seton Hall since a 95-43 victory over Norfolk State on Dec. 31, 2008, and the Pirates set new season-high marks in points scored (82), three-point field goals (9) and assists (26).
The nine three-pointers made tie for the fifth-most in a single game in program history, a feat last accomplished against DePaul on Jan. 28, 2012. With 26 assists, the Pirates recorded the seventh-most in team history.
The Pirates led from wire to wire after jumping out to an 11-0 lead to start the game on Wednesday afternoon. Senior Alexandra Maseko (Harare, Zimbabwe) sparked the offense early on, netting the first four points of the game for the Pirates and Simmons finished a three-point play to make the score 9-0 just 3:32 into the action.
Maseko went on to finish the game with eight points, seven rebounds and a career-high six steals.
Sophomore Alexis Brown (Jacksonville, Fla.) closed out the SHU run with a turnaround jumper in the paint on the Pirates' next possession.
New Orleans missed its first five field goals and turned the ball over seven times before Mechel'le Thomas knocked down a jumper and then a three-pointer on consecutive possessions to cut the SHU lead down to six.
Green had the answer for Seton Hall, hitting three pointers on back-to-back possessions to push the Pirates' lead up to 12, 17-5.
Morris extended Seton Hall's lead to more than 20 points for the first time in the game when she hit the second of her pair of first-half three pointers with 2:11 to play in the period and Green sunk two more long range buckets with under a minute remaining to give the Pirates a 45-17 lead at the half.
Green led all scorers in the first half with 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting from downtown. Maseko, who hit her first four field goal attempts of the game, had eight points and five rebounds and Simmons scored seven points to go along with the seven assists through 20 minutes of action.
Seton Hall recorded its highest single-half field goal percentage of the season, shooting 54.5 percent (18-for-33) from the field as a team and tied its season high with six three pointers. The Pirates also forced 15 Privateer turnovers in the first half and had a commanding 21-2 advantage in points off turnovers.
The Pirates started the second half on a 12-2 run to open up a 57-19 lead fewer than five minutes into the period. They pulled ahead 51-19 on a Simmons three-pointer just 1:14 into the half and made it 57-19 as Morris hit a three and then made a layup in span of just 49 seconds.
Green's fifth triple of the game came with 12:05 remaining widened the gap to over 40 points for the first time, with the score at 66-24. The Pirates led by as many as 49 points late in the game on their way to the win.
Amber Clay was the high scorer for New Orleans, finishing with 12 points and three rebounds, while Mathilde Fogelstrom had four points and a team-high eight rebounds.
Seton Hall returns to action on Saturday, Dec. 22, when it hosts the University of Memphis in Walsh Gymnasium. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.
