Seton Hall and Illinois to Square Off on the BEDN
12/8/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
NR/RV SETON HALL (8-1) vs. ILLINOIS (7-2)
South Orange, N.J. (Walsh Gymnasium) • Tuesday, Dec. 9 • 7:00 PM
Broadcast: BIG EAST Digital Network (Play-by-play: Jon Schaeffer; Color: David Gass)
Radio: 89.5 FM WSOU (Play-by-play: Steve Varsanyi; Color: James Pinnock)
Seton Hall Game Notes 
| Illinois Game Notes | FOX Sports GO |
The Seton Hall University women's basketball team will face one of its toughest tests of the season when the University of Illinois Fighting Illini roll into Walsh Gymnasium on Tuesday night. A premier non-conference contest, which will be carried by the BIG EAST Digital Network and broadcast on the Fox Sports Go mobile app, will see tipoff come at 7 p.m.
Seton Hall is 8-1 and the winner of seven straight for the first time since 2008, but Illinois carries a set of unique challenges in what figures to be a fast paced, high scoring affair.
This is the second leg of a home-and-home series that began last year, with Illinois grabbing a one-point win, 71-70, exactly a year ago in Champaign. Led by Ka-Deidre Simmons, who scored 20 points with five assists, Seton Hall led by 20 points with fewer than nine minutes to play, only to see Illinois use a 28-7 run to end the game and escape with a win.
Both squads have made key additions since last year's meeting, the Pirates having added graduate guard Daisha Simmons, while Illinois boasts perhaps the top freshman in the Big Ten in Chatrice White. Daisha Simmons ranks second at Seton Hall and seventh in the BIG EAST, averaging 17.1 ppg, while White is the reigning Big Ten rookie of the week, averaging 15.4 points and a team-high 8.0 rebounds per game for the Fighting Illini.
Seton Hall and Illinois do a lot of the same things well, especially when it comes to creating turnovers. The Pirates rank second in the BIG EAST and 17th nationally in turnover margin at +7.0, and are also second in the league and 22nd in the country in steals per game with 12.3. The Fighting Illini excel in the same two categories, boasting a +6.56 turnover margin, good for 24th overall, while grabbing 11.8 steals per game, the 30th-best mark in the country.
It goes without saying that whichever team is more successful at picking off passes and getting out in transition will have a distinct advantage. At least on paper that trend may favor SHU, who statistically speaking does a better job of protecting the basketball, committing just 13.7 turnovers per game compared to 18.2 for Illinois. The Pirates will also look to use outside shooting to their advantage. Illinois is hitting just 26.1 percent of its shot from 3-point range, compared to a 32.7 percent success rate for The Hall.
After that, the side-by-side comparison is nearly a mirror image. Seton Hall shoots 41.6 percent from the field, Illinois hits at a 42.2 percent clip. The Pirates have attempted 190 free throws, Illinois, 198. The Fighting Illinois average 39.2 rebounds per game and have a negative rebound margin, much like Seton Hall, which averages 40.2 rebound per contest.
SETON HALL STATUS
- Seton Hall has won seven game in a row, matching its longest winning streak since 2008, and is coming off an 80-63 win over Lafayette on Sunday afternoon.
- Daisha Simmons has been named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll after helping the Pirates post a 3-0 record last week. She averaged 18.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.3 steals per game.
- The Pirates are concluding a stretch of four games in seven days, but will have eight days off before back-to-back games against Fairfield and NJIT just after the conclusion of the Fall semester.
ILLINOIS' STATUS
- Illinois won just nine games last season but the Fighting Illini are much improved in 2014-15, off to a 7-2 start, including victories in back-to-back games after playing a trio of difficult foes at the Paradise Jam.
- The Fighting Illini have scored 86 points in each of their last two games, both victories, which includes an 86-63 win over Virginia at home.
- Illinois has seen consistency in its starting lineup, with four players starting all nine games. Ivory Crawford leads three players averaging double figures at 16.7 ppg. She scored 14 points with six rebounds and four assists against Seton Hall last season.
SETON HALL VS. THE BIG TEN
- Seton Hall is 6-18 all-time against the current members of the Big Ten Conference, and the Pirates are 0-1 all-time against Illinois.
- The Pirates' last match-up with a team from the Big Ten was earlier this season when Seton Hall won at defending Big Ten champion Penn State, 75-70.
LAST TIME AGAINST ILLINOIS
- Tuesday night's game is the second of a home-and-home series between Seton Hall and Illinois, with the Fighting Illini picking up a 71-70 win last year in Champaign.
- Seton Hall led by 20 points in the second half of last year's matchup, but Illinois took the lead on a pair of free throws with four seconds remaining.
- Illinois ended the second half on a 28-7 run over the final 8:45 to complete its huge comeback.
- Ka-Deidre Simmons led four Pirates in double figures with 20 points to go along with five assists.
Daisha Simmons HONORED AGAIN
- Graduate Daisha Simmons received BIG EAST accolades for a second week in a row, landing on the conference Honor Roll on Dec. 8, one week after being named the Player of the Week.
- She scored in double figures in three games for SHU, including a game-high 23 points in a win over Creighton on Dec. 3. The Hall also won at Fordham and against Lafayette.
- For the week she averaged 18.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.7 steals per game.
RUN THAT WIN STREAK TO SEVEN
- With its 80-63 victory over Lafayette on Dec. 7, Seton Hall ran its current winning streak to seven games in a row, matching the longest streak for The Hall since December 2008.
- Against Illinois, Seton Hall will be looking to win its eighth straight for the first time since the 2003-04 season.
- The Pirates also boast a pretty healthy home winning streak, taking 10 in a row in Walsh Gym dating back to last season.
- It is the second 10-game home winning streak for The Hall since Tony Bozzella took over the program. Prior to that, the Pirates had not won 10-straight in Walsh since a 20-game streak from 1993-95.
TOP-10 AND RISING FAST
- Scoring 15 points at Fordham on Dec. 5, graduate point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons moved into ninth-place all-time in Seton Hall history with 1,285 points.
- Simmons needs just two points to move past Dawn Johnson (`91-'95) for the eighth spot, and once she reaches 1,300 points, she would be 61 points out of seventh place.
- Simmons is averaging a career-best 17.7 ppg so far this season, which leads Seton Hall and ranks third in the BIG EAST.
STICKY FINGERS
- Seton Hall has proven to be particularly effective at forcing turnovers so far this season, with four of the Pirates' opponents turning the ball over more than 20 times.
- The Pirates have tallied double-digit steals as a team in eight of their nine games this year, including each of the last seven.
- The Pirates are now averaging 12.3 steals per game, which ranks 2nd in the nation.
