Ka-Deidre Simmons Named to BIG EAST Honor Roll
12/16/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 16, 2013
NEW YORK - Seton Hall University redshirt junior point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) was named to the BIG EAST Conference Women's Basketball Weekly Honor Roll Monday it was announced by the league office. It is the first time in her career Simmons has received a BIG EAST weekly accolade.
A Preseason All-BIG EAST selection, Simmons led the Pirates in a 71-70 loss at Illinois last Monday night, scoring a team-high 20 points to go along with five assists and five rebounds while logging all 40 minutes as the Pirates' floor general. The 20-point output represented a season-high for the redshirt junior guard and was just her second-career 20-point game, one off her career high 21 points set in a win over Providence last season.
Simmons scored 12 points in the first half against Illinois and helped the Pirates build a 36-25 halftime cushion over the Fighting Illini by assisting late baskets from sophomore Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) and redshirt freshman Sidney Cook (Parkton, N.C.) and hitting a pair of free throws with 11 seconds remaining.
Seton Hall saw its lead balloon to 20 points as senior Janee Johnson (Matthews, N.C.) found Simmons under the rim for an easy layup early in the second half but the Pirates were unable to hold off a frenzied Illinois run late in the game in a one-point loss on the road.
Simmons has scored in double figures in eight of the Pirates' nine games this season and has led the team in scoring three times. She leads the BIG EAST with 5.8 assists per game has accrued the team-high in assists in every matchup this year and in 13-straight games overall dating back to the 2012-13 season.
Her two double-doubles are tied for the team lead with leading scorer Richardson-Smith. Simmons scored 18 points with a career-high 10 rebounds in a win over Rider on Nov. 10, and dished out a career-high 12 assists with 15 points in a victory over UMass-Lowell on Dec. 7; her 12 assists were just two shy of tying the Seton Hall single-game mark.
Seton Hall will return to action on Saturday, Dec. 21, when it hosts NJIT in Walsh Gymnasium in its final non-conference test before BIG EAST play begins at St. John's on Dec. 28. Tipoff against NJIT is scheduled for 2 p.m.
BIG EAST Player of the Week
Andrea White, F - Georgetown
BIG EAST Freshman of the Week
Natalie Butler, C - Georgetown
BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll
Taylor Schippers, G - Butler
Megan Rogowski, G - DePaul
Apiew Ojulu, F - Marquette
Ka-Deidre Simmons, G - Seton Hall
Emily Leer, C - Villanova
