Hall Hosts Marquette Saturday at 2 PM
2/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 21, 2014
SETON HALL (15-10, 6-8) vs. MARQUETTE (18-7, 9-5)
South Orange, N.J. (Walsh Gymnasium) • Saturday, Feb. 22 • 2:00 PM
Broadcast: Pirate Sports Network (Play-by-play: Jon Schaeffer; Color: David Gass)
Radio: 89.5 FM WSOU (Play-by-play: Rohit Ravi; Color: Benedetto DiCostanzo)
Seton Hall Game Notes
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The Seton Hall University women's basketball team continues its home stand when it hosts the Marquette University Golden Eagles in Walsh Gymnasium on Saturday, Feb. 22, at 2 p.m. Seton Hall and Marquette's first meeting of the season came just 17 days ago with the Golden Eagles winning a nail biter in Milwaukee, 62-60. Marquette has won five straight against the Pirates and leads the all-time series 7-2 but Seton Hall is 2-2 against the Golden Eagles in Walsh Gym.
SETON HALL STATUS
Seton Hall snapped a three-game home losing streak with an 82-72 win over Providence College on Tuesday. Ka-Deidre Simmons led three Pirates in double figures with 18 points to go along with a team-high five assists. She is just 25 points shy of 1,000 for her career. Alexis Brown was one point off her career high with 17 in the win over Providence. Tabatha Richardson-Smith finished with 14 points, knocking down two 3-pointers.
MARQUETTE'S STATUS
The Golden Eagles are the hottest team in the BIG EAST. Winners of three straight, Marquette is coming off its biggest win of the year, an 80-74 home triumph over DePaul on Tuesday. Marquette limited DePaul to just 35.1 percent shooting from the field in that win and had five players score in double figures, led by Arlesia Morse's 17 points. The Golden Eagles are one of the best rebounding teams in the country, pulling down 46.7 rebounds per game with a 14.4 rebound margin.
ACT II: LAST TIME AGAINST MARQUETTE
- Seton Hall nearly came all the way back from a 12-point second half deficit at Marquette on Feb. 5, but the Golden Eagles held on for a 62-60 win.
- Just two Pirates scored in double figures in that game as Ka-Deidre Simmons finished with 20, passing 900-career points in the process, and Tabatha Richardson-Smith netted 11, but she was 1-for-7 from 3-point range.
- Rebounding and second-chance scoring made a big difference for Marquette. The Golden Eagles outrebounded Seton Hall 39-24, the Pirates' largest rebounding deficit of the season, and Marquette outscored SHU 11-4 in second chance opportunities.
- Seton Hall started strong, using a 12-0 run to take an 18-6 lead early in the game. Marquette went more than five minutes without a basket.
- Katherine Plouffe led Marquette with 14 points and Lauren Tibbs came off the bench to finish with 10 on 5-for-7 shooting.
SHARPSHOOTING FRESHMAN
Freshman wing Teresa Kucera has emerged as an outside shooting threat for the Pirates and one of the best first-year long-distance shooters in the BIG EAST. Kucera is shooting 40.7 percent (11-for-27) from 3-point range this season, has hit a three in eight BIG EAST games and ranks second on the team in made 3-point field goals. She now ranks first in the conference in BIG EAST only contests with a 45.8 percentage (11-for-24) from 3-point range. Her 11 made 3-pointers are the sixth most for a freshman in the BIG EAST this season and her .407 percentage from deep trails just Creighton freshman MC McGrory, but she is only 4-for-8 (.500). Kucera scored a career-high nine points on 3-for-4 shooting from the outside in a win at Providence on Jan. 25.
CONFERENCE MILESTONE
With its win over Providence on Feb. 18, Seton Hall picked up its sixth BIG EAST victory of the season, which is the most for the Pirates since the 2006-07 season. That year the Pirates finished 19-12 overall and 9-7 in the BIG EAST. Seton Hall has also reached 15 victories which guarantees at least a .500 overall regular season record for the first time since 2008-09 when it finished 17-14. The Pirates have finished the year with a .500 or better record just twice since the 2004-05 season.
COMING UP BIG IN CONFERENCE
Seton Hall's leading scorers Tabatha Richardson-Smith (17.0 ppg) and Ka-Deidre Simmons (16.2 ppg) both rank in the top-10 in the BIG EAST in scoring. DePaul is the only other team in the league to have two players (Jasmine Penny and Megan Rogowski) in the top-10 in overall scoring. Simmons (4th) and Richardson-Smith (10th) also rank in the top-10 in conference only scoring. Providence, Creighton and DePaul also boast a pair of offensive leaders in BIG EAST contests.
COUNTDOWN TO 1,000
With 20 points at Marquette on Feb. 5, redshirt junior guard Ka-Deidre Simmons eclipsed 900 points for her career. Simmons currently leads all active Seton Hall players with 975-career points. She is 23 points away from passing Brittany Morris (`09-'13) for 20th place on the SHU all-time scoring list. She has started 83 of her 86-career games played and is averaging 11.3 ppg for her career. Simmons is averaging a career-best 16.2 ppg this season, which ranks sixth in the BIG EAST.
RANKED REBOUNDER
Redshirt sophomore Bra'Shey Ali has finally reached the 75 percent games played threshold to qualify for BIG EAST and NCAA rankings, and her rebounding numbers are pretty good. Ali leads Seton Hall, ranks second in the BIG EAST and is No. 25 in the nation with 10.5 rebounds per game. She has 10 double-digit rebounding efforts so far this season, including a career-high 17 boards in a win over Weber State on Nov. 15. Ali has recorded a team-best six double-doubles this season, including four in a row from Jan. 18-28.
POSTSEASON PROGNOSIS
The BIG EAST regular season is entering the final stretch, so the positioning for the 2014 BIG EAST Championship is starting to take shape. If the BIG EAST Tournament started today Seton Hall would be seeded seventh, and face No. 10 seed Providence in the first round. The Pirates sit a game back of Butler for the No. 6 seed (although Seton Hall lost the first game of the year to the Bulldogs) and are three games behind Marquette for the No. 5 seed.
