Seton Hall University
Xavier
RV/RV Pirates Run Past Xavier 78-54
1/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Box Score | Box Score 
| Highlights
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - A season-high five players scored in double figures as a very balanced RV/RV Seton Hall University women's basketball team never trailed and rode a frenetic pace to a 78-54 win over the Xavier Musketeers on Friday night in Walsh Gym.
Seton Hall (14-2, 3-1), which has now won 16-straight home games dating back to last season, put up a season-high 85 shot attempts in the win and forced Xavier (11-5, 3-2) to commit 22 turnovers, compared to just five for The Hall, meaning SHU attempted 21 more shots and held a 24-6 advantage in points off turnovers.
Graduate Daisha Simmons (Jersey City, N.J.) record her first double-double in a Seton Hall uniform, finishing with 10 points and a team-high 13 boards; the Pirates grabbed a season-high 51 rebounds as a team and maintained a 28-21 lead on the glass in the second half.
Graduate Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) led the Pirates offensively, finishing with an impressive stat line of 19 points, six assists and five steals. She moved past 1,400 career points and now sits sixth in program history in scoring with 1,402 points.
Janee Johnson (Matthews, N.C.) scored 13 points on 3-for-5 shooting from 3-point range, Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) scored 16 points and Tiffany Jones (New York, N.Y.) came off the bench to score 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting with seven boards and four blocked shots.
Twice in the first half, Seton Hall managed to take nine point leads, and thanks to a strong run to close the first half, the Pirates led by six at the intermission.
Richardson-Smith powered the first Pirate run, scoring 11 of Seton Hall's first 15 points of the game. After knocking down a triple five minutes into the action, she came away with a loose ball created by Jones, and coasted in for an easy two in transition to make it 15-8.
Sophomore Lubirdia Gordon (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) capped off the 8-0 SHU run with a jump hook in the paint at 13:42 to make it 17-8.
Kindell Fincher hit from deep to pull the Musketeers within three, 23-20, but Seton Hall answered with a pair of triples to match its largest lead to that point, 29-20. Johnson hit the first and on the next possession Ka-Deidre Simmons was good from downtown.
Xavier responded with an 11-2 run over the next 4:41, tying it up at 31-31 on a Maddison Blackwell field goal with just under four minutes to play in the period, but the Musketeers never managed to take a lead. Seton Hall scored eight of the final 10 points of the half to regain control.
A Maleeka Kynard trey fewer than four minutes into the second half cut the Seton Hall lead down to 43-41, only Seton Hall scored the next eight points to push its lead into double digits for the first time and start to create some real separation.
Johnson's second triple of the night made it 49-41, and Ka-Deidre Simmons capped off the big run by driving base line and making an easy two under the basket.
The final margin of victory matched Seton Hall's largest lead of the game. The Pirates limited Xavier to just seven field goals in the second half, when the Musketeers shot 24.1 percent (7-of-29).
Seton Hall will be back in action on Sunday afternoon, when it heads up to Providence College. Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.
