Seton Hall University
Xavier
Pirates Defeat Xavier 62-50 in Regular Season Finale
3/4/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 4, 2014
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SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The Seton Hall University women's basketball team wrapped up regular season play on a high note picking up a near wire-to-wire 62-50 victory over the Xavier Musketeers on Senior Night in Walsh Gymnasium.
The Pirates head into the 2014 BIG EAST Tournament as the No. 7 seed and will face the No. 10 seed Providence Friars in first round action on Saturday, March 8, at McGrath-Phillips Arena on the campus of DePaul University in Chicago, Ill.
Seton Hall finished the regular season with a 17-12 overall record, the program's most victories since 2008-09, and an 8-10 mark in BIG EAST play, the most conference wins since 2006-07.
Prior to the game the Pirates honored their three members of the Class of 2014 who were making their final regular season appearance at Walsh Gymnasium: Janee Johnson (Matthews, N.C.), Breanna Jones (Springfield, Va.) and Elaine Swaby (Paterson, N.J.). Seton Hall also held a 1,000 point ball ceremony for redshirt junior Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.), who last week at Creighton became the 20th player in program history to score 1,000-career points and would have been in her senior season if not for a medical redshirt year in 2011-12.
Junior Alexis Brown (Jacksonville, Fla.) posted her second career double-double and finished just one point off her career high with 23 points to go along with 12 rebounds and six assists. Simmons made it two Pirates in double figures with 12 points and six assists, leaving her with 155 on the year, just four shy of setting a new Seton Hall single-season record.
Xavier experienced two separate field goal droughts of longer than five minutes in the opening half as Seton Hal built a 37-18 lead by the intermission.
The Musketeers missed five straight attempts and turned the ball over four times during a stretch of 5:51 without a bucket and the Pirates extended the advantage to 17-8 at 11:53 as sophomore Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) completed a 3-point play, making an awkward bucket under the basket as she drew contact from Aliyah Zantt.
It was 3-point shooting aiding Xavier's attempt to climb back into the game. When Zantt knocked down a trey at 9:57 the Seton Hall lead was cut to 20-16, but after that triple the Musketeers would make just one more field goal in the first half, and went without a made shot from the field over the final 6:49.
Simmons connected on a 15-foot jumper on the wing to get the SHU offense back on track as the Pirates ended the first half on a 17-2 run. The lead reached 10 for the first time as redshirt-freshman Sidney Cook (Parkton, N.C.) traversed through the paint for an easy two points at 7:50.
The Pirates were dominant on the glass and in the paint. With just over five minutes to play in the half Seton Hall had as many offensive rebounds, 10, as Xavier had total boards. SHU finished the half with a 28-15 edge in rebounding with 12 offensive rebounds and a 15-0 lead in second-chance scoring. That advantage would not dissipate in the second period as the Hall finished the game outscoring Xavier 32-12 in the paint and 17-5 in second-chance opportunities.
Seton Hall led by as many as 21 points in the second half and maintained a comfortable lead for a majority of the game, but a late field goal drought allowed Xavier to climb back into contention with a 21-6 run to pull within 56-50 with just over three minutes to play.
Seton Hall created easy offense on an out of bounds play with 2:08 remaining as Simmons found Richardson-Smith under the basket for a wide open layup to stretch the margin back to eight, and the Pirates shot 4-for-4 from the line over the final minute to clinch the double-digit win. Xavier missed its final three field goal attempts and committed turnovers on three-straight possessions down the stretch.
Ashley Wanninger paced Xavier with 12 points, hitting three 3-pointers and Briana Glover also finished in double figures for the Musketeers, tallying 11 points with eight rebounds.
