Seton Hall University
Creighton
Simmons Reaches 1,000 Points but Pirates Fall at Creighton
2/26/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2014
OMAHA, NEB. - Redshirt junior Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) became the 20th player in Seton Hall University women's basketball history to score 1,000-career points but the Pirates were unable to overcome a big Creighton run to start the second half, falling 70-50, on Wednesday night in D.J. Sokol Arena.
Simmons scored a game-high 18 points to reach the 1,000-point plateau and move into 19th place in Seton Hall women's basketball history with 1,010-career points. She is averaging a career-best 16.2 ppg this season and has scored in double figures in 26 of the Pirates' 27 games.
Sophomore Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas), who was coming off a school-record breaking 38 point performance against Marquette last Saturday, also finished in double figures for SHU with 13 points.
Seton Hall is now 16-11 overall and 7-9 in the BIG EAST with a showdown at Butler looming on Saturday afternoon. The Pirates and Bulldogs are battling for the sixth spot in the conference standings, which comes with a bye into the quarterfinals at the BIG EAST Tournament. Butler leads SHU by one game with two to play and the Bulldogs won the first meeting in South Orange, 75-69, back on Jan. 4.
The first half momentum on Wednesday night ebbed and flowed in each team's direction during various stretches but it was a 9-1 Creighton run to end the half that resulted in a 29-28 Bluejay lead at the intermission.
Creighton was cold to start the game, missing eight of its first nine field goal attempts, but once the Bluejay offense did get on track it was from long distance. Four of the first five made baskets for the home team were from downtown, so despite the poor shooting start, which resulted in an early 8-3 deficit, Creighton took a 14-12 lead with treys on back-to-back possessions, the second coming from BIG EAST leading scorer Marissa Janning, her first field goal of the game.
Eventually Richardson-Smith found an offensive rhythm, scoring eight straight points for the Pirates capped off by a triple from the right side. On the next possession Simmons buried a 15-foot jumper from the top of the key, the bucket that gave her 1,000-career points, and the Pirate lead was 27-20.
But Seton Hall would miss its final nine field goal attempts of the half and score just one point over the final 5:13, a Bra'Shey Ali (Plainfield, N.J.) free throw, as the Bluejays came up with nine of the final 10 points of the half. McKenzie Fujan provided a spark coming off the bench after sitting with early foul trouble, scoring twice in the paint with under two minutes to play.
The Fujan led surge carried over to the start of the second half as the Bluejays came out and executed a 10-2 run, making the total point swing 19-3 including the final five minutes of the first half. Fujan scored on the first Creighton possession and hit a 3-pointer at 17:21 to get the lead up to 34-30. Following a Sammy Jensen three fewer than 30 seconds later the cushion was up to seven.
With Simmons at the forefront Seton Hall did make a run. Five-straight points from the Pirates' point guard including a 3-point play and a reverse layup brought SHU back within four, and Ali scored at 12:21 to make the margin just two, but that would be the closest Seton Hall would get. Creighton responded with a 15-0 run, highlighted by an eight-point Janning burst that featured back-to-back 3-pointers as the half approached the 10-minute mark.
Creighton shot 7-for-15 (46.7 percent) from 3-point range in the second half and made 12 3-pointers in the game with six different players hitting at least one shot from deep. Fujan led Creighton with 17 points on 6-for-8 shooting while Janning finished with 16, knocking down four 3-pointers. The Bluejays improved to 12-1 at home this season and 8-0 in conference play.
