Pirates Face Villanova Saturday on FOX Sports 2
1/10/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 10, 2014
SETON HALL (9-4, 0-2) at VILLANOVA (12-2, 2-1)
Villanova, Pa. (The Pavilion) • Saturday, Jan. 11 • 4:00 PM
Television: FOX Sports 2 (Play-by-play: Tiffany Greene; Color: Sarah Kustok)
Radio: 89.5 FM WSOU (Play-by-play: Vincent Paolella; Color: Anthony DiPaolo)
Seton Hall Game Notes
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The Seton Hall University women's basketball team returns to action after a week layoff to face Villanova University on Saturday, Jan. 11, in Villanova, Pa., at 4 p.m., in a game that will be nationally televised on FOX Sports 2. Villanova leads the all-time series with Seton Hall 35-18 and the Wildcats have won four-straight against the Pirates, including a 63-34 win last year in South Orange. The Pirates' last win over Villanova came at the Pavilion on Jan. 30, 2010, a 53-49 victory.
SETON HALL STATUS
Seton Hall saw an 11-point halftime cushion slip away as it fell to Butler University, 75-69, last Saturday afternoon in Walsh Gymnasium. BIG EAST leading scorer Tabatha Richardson-Smith finished with 21 points, her seventh 20-point game of the season to lead four Pirates in double figures. Redshirt junior Ka-Deidre Simmons finished with 14 points and eight assists, registering zero turnovers for a third-straight game.
VILLANOVA STATUS
Villanova has won three-straight games and five of its last six contests, most recently picking up a 70-48 victory at Butler on Wednesday night. The Wildcats are one of the more lethal perimeter teams in the BIG EAST, making 118 triples on the year and shooting 31.8 percent from long range as a team, which ranks third in the league. Villanova also ranks first in the league with a 2.0 assist-to-turnover ratio. Devon Kane (11.4 ppg) and Caroline Coyer (10.5 ppg) lead the Wildcats in scoring and have made 36 and 35 3-point field goals respectively.
NATIONALLY TELEVISED GAME
Seton Hall's BIG EAST contest at Villanova University on Saturday, Jan. 11, will be broadcast live nationally on FOX Sports 2. All 10 BIG EAST women's basketball programs will have at least one nationally televised game on a FOX Sports cable network during the 2013-14 season. FOX Sports 1 will air the 2014 BIG EAST Tournament semifinals and final on March 10-11.
#1 SCORING THREAT
Sophomore Tabatha Richardson-Smith heads into the weekend ranked first in the conference in scoring at 19.5 points per game. She has scored in double figures in 11 games, including a career-high 30 points in a win over Rider on Nov. 10. Richardson-Smith is scoring 14.6 points above her freshman average of 4.9 ppg. She is doing a lot of her damage from long range, hitting 37 of Seton Hall's 51 3-point field goals, ranking second in the BIG EAST in 3-pointers per game (2.8) and first in 3-point shooting percentage (.463).
HELPING HAND
Point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons has benefited in the four games since Alexis Brown returned to the lineup providing an additional ball handler in the Pirates' back court. Over the past four games Simmons has dished out 24 assists with just five turnovers for an assist-turnover ratio of 4.8; above her season average of 2.2, which ranks fifth in the BIG EAST. Simmons has posted three-straight games without a turnover, tallying eight assists without a giveaway against Butler last Saturday.
SECOND ASSIST
Junior guard Alexis Brown needed just four games to ascend to second on the team in assists with 19. Brown set a new career-high with seven assists in her first game back from injury against NJIT on Dec. 31. She is averaging 4.8 assists per game over her first four games with a 1.9 assist-turnover ratio. Brown led or tied for the team lead in assists in two of her first three games of the season.
NOT THE WINNING MARGIN
Seton Hall has done an excellent job at forcing opponent turnovers over the past five games, with a +28 turnover differential (106-78) for a +5.6 turnover margin. For the season the Pirates' boast a +2.0 turnover margin which ranks third in the BIG EAST. Seton Hall has turned the ball over 10 or fewer times in each of its first two BIG EAST games but is 0-2 in those contests.
STICKY FINGERS
Seton Hall ranks second in the BIG EAST in steals per game (9.0) and total steals (117). SHU has recorded at least 10 steals in each of its last four games, averaging 12.3 steals per game over that stretch. It then makes sense that the Pirates have two players ranking second and third respectively in individual steals per game. Tabatha Richardson-Smith is second in the conference with 2.3 steals per game and Ka-Deidre Simmons is right behind her in third with 2.2 steals per game.
NEED TO GET BACK TO BASICS
After outrebounding nine of its first 10 opponents of the season Seton Hall has been outrebounded in each of its last three games. The Pirates were operating at a +12.0 rebound margin through 10 games but have posted a -6.0 rebound margin over the past three contests. Despite the lower numbers on the glass Seton Hall still ranks second in the BIG EAST in rebounding (47.6 rpg) and third in rebound margin at +7.8.
