Seton Hall University
Syracuse
Women's Hoops Falls at #24 Syracuse
1/31/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Sophomore Alexis Brown (Jacksonville, Fla.) paced Seton Hall with a game-high 10 points. It marked her fourth double figure scoring game of the season and the first time she has led Seton Hall in scoring in her career. She filled up the stat sheet in typical fashion, pulling down a team-high seven rebounds with three steals.
Seton Hall (8-13, 3-5) was off to a great start defensively, forcing Syracuse to miss eight of its first nine field goal attempts and the Orange opened the game shooting 2-for-13 as the Pirates grabbed a 6-5 lead on a Brittany Webb (New York, N.Y.) layup five and a half minutes into the action.
After that Syracuse (17-3, 5-2) started to heat up, hitting five of its next nine field goals to grab a 16-10 advantage on an Elashier Hall bucket with 7:38 to play.
That stretch was part of what turned into a 14-2 Orange run over 6:42 of the first half and Syracuse led by as many as 12 points in the opening period, making it a 24-12 margin on a Brianna Butler trey just before the under four minute timeout.
Seton Hall entered the game shooting 33.8 percent (21-for-62) from three over its last three contests, hitting at least six three pointers in each of those games, but the Pirates missed their first nine long range attempts on Wednesday before freshman Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) ended the drought just before the half to close the SHU margin to just nine, 26-17.
Syracuse was not particularly sharp from long-distance either, hitting two of its 12 first half three-point attempts. The Orange instead did most of its damage in the paint, particularly on second-chance opportunities. Syracuse only outrebounded Seton Hall 28-25 in the first half and both teams had 10 offensive boards, but Syracuse outscored The Hall 10-2 in second chance points.
Syracuse was red hot to start the second half, sinking seven of its first 10 field goals and using a 15-0 run to open up a 42-21 lead.
Brittney Sykes and Butler did a bulk of the damage for the Orange, with Sykes scoring eight points and Butler knocking down two shots from deep to help Syracuse stretch its lead.
Redshirt sophomore Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) finished with seven points and six assists and senior Alexandra Maseko (Harare, Zimbabwe) had six points and five boards.
Seton Hall made just one three-point field goal and finished the game shooting 1-for-15 from three-point range, breaking a streak of at least six made three pointers in three-straight games.
Senior Terry Green (Brentwood, N.Y.), who was making her fifth start of the season, made a fast break layup late in the second half to reach 600-career points.
Butler and Sykes finished with 14 points apiece to lead Syracuse offensively. Alexander and Hall each registered a double-double; Alexander had 13 points and 12 boards and Hall finished with 10 points and a team-high 14 rebounds.
Seton Hall has its conference bye this weekend and will return to action on Wednesday, Feb. 6, when it heads to Chicago, Ill., to face the DePaul University Blue Demons. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. (ET).
