Seton Hall University
Providence
Players Mentioned
RV/#24 Pirates Ease Past Providence 67-40
2/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Box Score | Box Score 
| Fox Sports 1 Highlights
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The historic ride that has been the 2014-15 Seton Hall women's basketball season rolled on Friday night, as the Pirates rose to 21-2 for the first time in program history with a 67-40 win over Providence.
The victory matched the program's longest home winning streak, as Seton Hall has won 20 in a row in South Orange dating back to last season, tying a mark originally set over a span from 1993-95. The Pirates' 10-1 league record is also a milestone, tying the 1993-94 squad for the best start to BIG EAST play.
Graduate forward Janee Johnson (Matthews, N.C.) scored a career-high 17 points, and hit five of the team's nine 3-pointers, to go along with eight rebounds.
Graduate guard Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) also put up 17 points, and tallied seven assists in the win. She was one of four in double-figures for the Pirates, as graduate point guard Daisha Simmons (Jersey City, N.J.) scored 11 points while junior guard Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) pitched in 10 to go along with a team-high 13 boards. Richardson-Smith has now recorded a double-double in three of the last five games for The Hall.
Providence (5-18, 2-10) jumped out to an 11-6 lead as Alexis Harris and Evi Iiskola combined for nine points in the first five minutes, but the Pirates responded behind Johnson. The graduate forward knocked down a lay-in on the right block to give her five points and Seton Hall the 12-11 advantage with 13:05 to play in the first half.
The Friars took the lead back with four straight before Seton Hall broke out for its largest run of the first stanza. After junior forward Tiffany Jones (New York, N.Y.) and Ka-Deidre Simmons combined for back-to-back lay-ins, Johnson nailed her second trey of the game to put the Pirates up by four with 10:56 to play in the first half. Simmons capped what was a 12-0 run that did not even span two minutes as the Pirates led 24-15 less than 10 minutes in.
The night was just beginning for Johnson, who scored six of the next eight points for the Pirates with two more deep balls to push the advantage to 32-20.
Oddly enough, the two offenses combined for just three field goals from that point on before the half. A lay-in by Ka-Deidre Simmons right before the buzzer gave the Pirates a 36-22 lead.
The second half featured more of the same combination for The Hall, with Johnson knocking down her fifth triple to officially give her the career-high night. The Friars were forced to take a timeout after Ka-Deidre Simmons delivered another lay-in, and just three minutes into the second half, the Pirates led 43-24.
The Friars went over six minutes without scoring before Alexis Harris put in a bucket to cut Seton Hall's lead to 53-26 with just under 13 minutes to play, but not before Tabatha Richardson-Smith knocked down two straight triples to get into double-figures. With lay-ins on back-to-back possessions by Daisha Simmons and Ka-Deidre Simmons, the Pirates extended their run to start the second to 21-4. The Hall led by as many as 33 in the dominating performance after another bucket inside by Daisha Simmons with 10:15 remaining.
The Pirates' defense stifled the Friars from finding offensive life in the second half, holding Providence to just 18 points in the period and leading scorer Alexis Harris to only eight points. SHU also dominated the play in the paint, with a 30-14 advantage on the interior.
At 10-1 in BIG EAST play, the first-place Pirates will look to break the program record for the longest home winning streak when they play host to the Creighton Bluejays, winners of four in a row, on Sunday at 2 p.m. inside Walsh Gymnasium.
