Pirates Host Hoyas in Walsh on Saturday Afternoon
1/17/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2014
SETON HALL (10-5, 1-3) vs. GEORGETOWN (7-10, 1-4)
South Orange, N.J. (Walsh Gymnasium) • Saturday, Jan. 18 • 2:00 PM
Broadcast: Pirate Sports Network (Play-by-play: Jon Schaeffer; Color: David Gass)
Radio: 89.5 FM WSOU (Play-by-play: Brendan Borthwick; Color: George Balekji)
Seton Hall Game Notes
| Georgetown Game Notes | | Live Video | Anthony Bozzella Interview
The Seton Hall University women's basketball team continues its two-game BIG EAST home stand by welcoming the Georgetown Hoyas into Walsh Gymnasium on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 2 p.m. Seton Hall leads the all-time series with Georgetown 30-24 but the Hoyas have won four-straight, including last year's meeting in the nation's capital, 70-50. The Pirates are 15-8 all-time against Georgetown in Walsh Gym, but Seton Hall's last victory in the series was a 70-45 win at the 2009 BIG EAST Tournament.
SETON HALL STATUS
Seton Hall fell to DePaul University, 75-68, on Tuesday night in Walsh Gym. The Pirates led by six points with eight minutes to play but the Blue Demons pulled away behind the strength of 12 3-pointers. Ka-Deidre Simmons scored a team-high 21 points to lead SHU offensively, notching a second-straight 20-point game for the first time in her career. Returning to the starting lineup at Villanova last weekend, Bra'Shey Ali is averaging 9.0 points and 15.0 rebounds over the last two games.
GEORGETOWN STATUS
Georgetown fell to 1-4 in the BIG EAST with a 70-61 loss at Providence on Wednesday night. Freshman center Natalie Butler scored 13 points with 14 rebounds at Providence; the reigning BIG EAST Rookie of the Week has received that honor six times already this year. Senior Andrea White leads Georgetown's offense with 15.6 ppg; she had a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds against the Friars earlier in the week.
SIMMONS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Redshirt junior point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons was named the BIG EAST Women's Basketball Player of the Week on Jan. 13. It is the first time in her career Simmons has earned the conference honor; earlier this season she landed on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll for the first time in her career. Seton Hall has now had two student-athletes named Player of the Week for the first time since the 2004-05 season. Simmons' accolade came after she was key in the Pirates' 64-56 win at Villanova where she scored a career-high 25 points to go along with six assists in 40 minutes of action.
SIMMONS ECLIPSES 800-CAREER POINTS
With 21 points against DePaul on Jan. 14, redshirt junior guard Ka-Deidre Simmons eclipsed 800 points for her career. Simmons currently leads all active Seton Hall players with 810-career points. She has started 73 of her 76-career games played and is averaging 10.7 ppg for her career. Simmons is averaging a career-best 15.9 ppg this season, which ranks seventh in the BIG EAST.
SIMMONS NOW TOP-10 IN ASSISTS
Redshirt junior Ka-Deidre Simmons needed just two and a half seasons to crack the top-10 ranks amongst Seton Hall's career-assist leaders. With her six assists against DePaul on Jan. 14 she moved up to No. 10 in school history with 282. She now needs 18 more to ascend to No. 9. If she maintains her current pace Simmons could be in fifth place by the end of the season. Simmons is averaging 3.7 assists per game in her career and leads Seton Hall and ranks first in the BIG EAST at 5.9 apg this season.
THE 40/40 CLUB
So far this season the 40.0 percent field goal threshold has meant a considerable amount for Seton Hall in terms of wins and losses. The Pirates have yet to lose a game in which they held an opponent to under 40 percent shooting, boasting a perfect 8-0 record. When shooting over 40 percent from the field Seton Hall is 5-1, with the only loss coming at Illinois on Dec. 9.
ALL OVER THE GLASS
Since returning to the starting lineup at Villanova on Jan. 11, Bra'Shey Ali has led Seton Hall in rebounding in back-to-back games, averaging 15.0 rebounds per game during the two-game stretch. Ali secured 16 rebounds to go along with 10 points to record her second-career double-double at Villanova and followed that up with a game-high 14 boards against DePaul on Jan. 14. She has pulled down double-digit rebounds is five games and leads the team with 10.3 rebounds per game which would rank third in the BIG EAST.
NICE REBOUND
With its win at Villanova on Saturday, Jan. 11, Seton Hall improved to 4-0 this season when coming off a loss. Seton Hall, Marquette and Villanova are the only BIG EAST teams to avoid falling in back-to-back games so far this season. This is the deepest into the season Seton Hall has gone without dropping consecutive games since 1994-95 when the Pirates lasted all year without a two-game losing streak.
BOUNCE BACK
Sophomore Tabatha Richardson-Smith had her lowest scoring game of the season with two points at Villanova on Jan. 11, but she followed that up with 17 points behind three 3-pointers against DePaul on Jan. 14. The game at Villanova was also just the second time this season she was held without a 3-point field goal. Richardson-Smith has scored in double figures in 12 of 15 games this year with seven 20-point games. She leads Seton Hall and ranks second in the conference with 18.1 ppg.
REBOUNDING SPOTLIGHT
When Seton Hall matches up with Georgetown on Saturday controlling the glass may be the key to the game. Seton Hall ranks second in the league in rebounding (47.1) while Georgetown is third (46.1). The Pirates had a +12.0 rebound margin through the first 10 games of the season but Seton Hall is being outrebounded by an average of two boards per game since the start of BIG EAST play. The Hoyas are currently second in the league with a +9.2 rebound margin while SHU is just behind in third at +7.3.
PROTECTING THE ROCK
Seton Hall has been taking better care of the ball during the BIG EAST season, turning the ball over just 11.3 times per game on average compared to 17.5 turnovers per contest against non-conference opponents. The Pirates have a +0.6 turnover margin in non-conference games, but are +7.0 per game in turnovers in BIG EAST play which ranks first in the league. Thanks in large part to Ka-Deidre Simmons' BIG EAST leading 3.6 assist/turnover ratio in conference Seton Hall is +1.0 compared to +0.8 in all other games. Seton Hall had turned the ball over 10 or fewer times in each of its first two BIG EAST games but was 0-2 in those contests.
