Seton Hall University
Providence
Pirates Pull Away From Providence 82-72
2/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 18, 2014
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SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The Seton Hall University women's basketball team closed the game on a 24-14 run to pull away from Providence College, 82-72, on Tuesday night in Walsh Gymnasium. With the win the Pirates improve to 15-10 overall and 6-8 in the BIG EAST which is the most conference victories for Seton Hall since it went 9-7 in the BIG EAST during the 2006-07 season.
Redshirt junior point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) led three Pirates in double figures with 18 points, also dishing out five assists. She increased her career scoring total to 975, leaving her just 25 points shy of 1,000 for her career and 23 points away from cracking the top-20 in Seton Hall history.
Junior Alexis Brown (Jacksonville, Fla.) filled out the stat sheet, scoring 17 points, just one off her career high, while grabbing six boards with four assists. Sophomore Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) rounded out the double-figures scorers with 14, burying a pair of 3-pointers in the first half.
A one-point game at the half transitioned to a see-saw start to the second period as neither team led by more than four points until the Pirates finally stretched the lead behind the strength of a 6-0 run. SHU gained the advantage as freshman Tara Inman (Holmdel, N.J.) drove the baseline from the left side and dished it off to Bra'Shey Ali (Plainfield, N.J.) for a two-pointer in the paint; Ali scored eight of her nine points in the second half and also finished with six boards.
Simmons drove the lane on the next possession as the Hall made it a three-point game and she fed Brown for another field goal 39 seconds later to put the Pirates in front 56-51.
The Friars (6-20, 1-14) answered by scoring seven of the next eight points, tying things up 58-58 as Sarah Beal finished a layup in transition, but Providence would never regain the lead. Simmons hit a pair of free throws to put Seton Hall back on top and the Pirates would not relinquish the lead the rest of the way.
Brown completed a 3-point play at 3:24 to extend the lead to eight and fewer than 30 seconds later the Pirates were in front by double figures for the first time as Simmons hit Richardson-Smith streaking toward the rim on an out of bounds play for an uncontested two.
Both teams finished with four 3-pointers but interestingly all eight triples came during the first half as the teams combined to shoot 0-for-12 from downtown in the second half with the Friars misfiring on nine shots from deep.
In the first half long range shots told the story of each momentum swing. Seton Hall's first two buckets of the game were Richardson-Smith 3-pointers and freshman Teresa Kucera (Schwabisch Hall, Germany) came off the bench to bury a pair of threes to give Seton Hall an early 16-13 lead.
Providence charged back and led by as many as four points toward the end of the first half. It was triples on back-to-back possessions from Tori Rule and Evi Iiskola that resulted in the Friars regaining the lead.
All five starters finished in double figures for Providence, who were led by Alexis Harris' double-double with 26 points and 10 rebounds.
Seton Hall will return to Walsh Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon as the Pirates host Marquette University. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.
