Daisha Simmons BIG EAST Player of the Week
12/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
NEW YORK - For the second week in a row the BIG EAST Women's Basketball Player of the Week resides in South Orange, as graduate guard Daisha Simmons (Jersey City, N.J.) received the honors Monday it was announced by the league office.
Daisha Simmons garners the conference recognition one week after Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) was tabbed as the conference Player of the Week. It is just the second time in program history and the first in nearly 20 years that Seton Hall has had back-to-back BIG EAST Player of the Week honorees; Dawn Johnson and Dana Wynne were the last duo to accomplish that feat, doing so in December 1994.
Daisha Simmons was explosive offensively and consistently disruptive as a defender in averaging 23.0 ppg and leading the Pirates to three victories, including the SHU Thanksgiving Classic championship. She topped 20-points on two occasions, and turned in her first 30-point game in a Seton Hall uniform in the Pirates' 75-45 win over Saint Peter's on Saturday afternoon.
Seton Hall opened the week with a 77-74 win over Kennesaw State. In that game, Simmons tallied an efficient 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting, also dishing out a team-high eight assists.
Her first signature performance of the season really came in that win over Saint Peter's. She shot 12-for-19 and buried three 3-pointers in reaching 30 points for the first time this season, also pulling down eight rebounds to go along with four steals in the 30-point win.
In the Thanksgiving Classic final against Saint Joseph's she shined once again, torching the Hawks for 25 points, grabbing eight boards for a second-straight game, and also finishing with six steals. After averaging 27.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 5.0 steals per game in the pair of tournament wins, she was named the SHU Thanksgiving Classic Most Valuable Player.
For the week, Simmons shot 51.0 percent (26-for-51) from the field, firing better than 60.0 percent in two games. She also averaged 5.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 3.7 steals per contest.
So far this season she ranks eighth in the BIG EAST in scoring at 16.3 ppg, and is also fifth in assists (4.3) and seventh in steals (2.2).
Seton Hall is off to a 5-1 start and is receiving votes in the USA Today/Coaches Top-25 Poll for the first time in nearly 20 years.
The Pirates begin a difficult stretch of four games in seven days this Wednesday night, when they head out to Omaha, Neb., for the BIG EAST opener against Creighton University. That game will be nationally televised on Fox Sports 1 with tipoff coming at 8 p.m. (ET).
BIG EAST Player of the Week
Daisha Simmons - Seton Hall, G
BIG EAST Freshman of the Week
Kenisha Bell - Marquette, G
BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll
Briana Glover - Xavier, F
Loryn Goodwin - Butler, G
Aliyyah Handford - St. John's, G
Marissa Janning - Creighton, G
Megan Podkowa - DePaul, F
