Richardson-Smith Named BIG EAST Player of the Week
12/9/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 9, 2013
NEW YORK - Seton Hall University sophomore wing Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) was named the BIG EAST Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week Monday it was announced by the league office.
Richardson-Smith, who had been named to the last two BIG EAST Weekly Honor Rolls, receives conference Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career and is the first Seton Hall player to earn the accolade since Jasmine Crew on Nov. 21, 2011.
Richardson-Smith helped lead the Pirates to a 97-68 victory over UMass Lowell on Saturday afternoon, pouring in a game-high 27 points on 11-for-20 shooting from the field, while also pulling down 12 rebounds to record her second double-double of the season. She tied her career high with five 3-pointers and snagged a personal best six steals in the win.
In the first half against UMass Lowell Richardson-Smith shot 7-for-13 from the floor and scored 18 points, the highest single-half scoring performance of the year for Seton Hall, also tallying five boards, five steals and three assists. She was 4-for-4 from 3-point range in the first half and hit on her first five 3-point attempts of the game.
Averaging 21.1 points per game Richardson-Smith leads Seton Hall and ranks second in the BIG EAST in scoring average. She leads the league with 2.6 steals per game and ranks second in 3-point field goals per game (2.9) and 3-point field goal percentage (.479); Richardson-Smith is shooting 23-for-48 from 3-point range.
She has hit at least 10 field goals in three games already this season, her 13-for-20 performance resulting in 30 points in the win over Rider on Nov. 10, was one field goal shy of tying the single-game Seton Hall record and six points short of the single-game mark.
Making a monumental jump from her freshman campaign when she averaged 4.9 points and 2.5 rebounds per game, Richardson-Smith has already scored more points with more field goals and 3-point field goals through the first eight games of the season than she did during all 31 games of the 2012-13 season.
Richardson-Smith is the 17th player in school history to be named the BIG EAST Women's Basketball Player of the Week and just the second since 2007. The Pirates are 7-1 for the first time since the 2008-09 season and the second time since 1994-95.
Seton Hall returns to action on Monday night when it faces the University of Illinois at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. (ET).
