Seton Hall University
Weber State
Women's Basketball Eases Past Weber State, 78-61
11/15/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 15, 2013
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Redshirt junior Bra'Shey Ali (Plainfield, N.J.) finished with 14 points and 17 rebounds to record her first-career double-double and sophomore Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) poured in a game-high 27 points to lead the Seton Hall University women's basketball team to a 78-61 victory over Weber State on Friday night in Walsh Gymnasium.
Seton Hall never trailed in the game, taking an early 5-0 lead on a Richardson-Smith 3-pointer from the corner, one of her career-high four makes from the outside on the night.
Weber State would pull within one point on a Jalen Carpenter jump shot at the 15:30 mark of the first half, only to see the Pirates answer with a 7-0 run over the next 1:50, capped off by a Janee Johnson (Matthews, N.C.) three-point play as she stole the ball away from St. John's transfer Zakiyyah Shahid-Martin off a rebound and laid it in as she drew a foul.
The Wildcats would cut the Seton Hall advantage to one possession just once more; making their deficit three points following a pair of Desiree Ramos free throw makes with a little over 10 minutes to play in the opening period.
Once again the Pirates answered with a big run, this time rattling off eight unanswered points to push the lead into double figures for the first time, scoring six of those points from the line. The Hall would lead by as many as 18 points in the first half and was in front by 11 points at the intermission.
Richardson-Smith (11) and redshirt point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) (10) both scored in double figures in the first half and the Pirates did a lot of their damage at the line, where they were 19-for-25 (76.0 percent).
Richardson-Smith scored 16 of her points in the second half, and sunk a pair of threes over the first three minutes of the period to help spark a 12-2 Seton Hall run that put the Pirates ahead by 21 points with just under 17 minutes remaining.
The SHU lead fluctuated between 23 and 15 points the rest of the way. Simmons capped off a 10-2 run with a three-point play with 11:36 remaining to put the Hall in front 65-42 and Richardson-Smith hit seven field goals in the second half to help keep the Pirates' offense on track.
For a third-straight game Seton Hall was dominant in the paint, outscoring Weber State 44-24 on Friday night after holding an 80-40 edge on the interior through the first two games of the season.
Richardson-Smith eclipsed 20 points in back-to-back games for the first time in her career, after entering season with a career single-game high of 17 points. Simmons has scored at least 14 points in all three games this year, and extended her double-digit scoring streak to seven-straight games dating back to the end of last season. She was also 7-for-7 from the line where she is now 29-for-30 (96.7 percent) this year.
Carpenter led Weber State with 17 points and the Wildcats were held without a 3-point field goal, shooting 0-for-12 from beyond the arc, the first opponent to go scoreless from the outside against Seton Hall since Stony Brook on Dec. 17, 2011.
At halftime of the game Seton Hall honored the members of its 1993-94 women's basketball squad, which was reunited to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its incredible run to the Sweet 16. The Pirates finished that season with a 27-5 overall record and as runners up in the BIG EAST Championship, toppling Texas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Walsh Gymnasium on the way to finishing the year with a No. 14 national ranking.
Seton Hall returns to action on Sunday, Nov. 17, when it heads to Columbia, S.C., to face the No. 21/17 South Carolina Gamecocks at Colonial Life Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 p.m.
