Funeus drives Pirates to 102-80 victory over Kennesaw State

Date: November 10, 2018

By Wilnir Louis

The Seton Hall Women’s Basketball team put up 100 points for the first time since 2015, as they blew out the Kennesaw State Owls 102-80 in their first game of the Seton Hall Tip-off.

The Owls took the early 2-0 lead after Carlotta Gianolla made the basket, but the Pirates then went on a 8-0 scoring run aided by an and-one play by Inja Butina and five straight points by Shadeen Samuels. Then, Kennesaw State stayed in the game and retook the lead with 4:44 left to go in the first quarter. The Pirates would take the lead right back and go up as much as 10 in the quarter, and ending the quarter with a 29-24 lead.

The second quarter started off well for the Pirates as Samuels hit her second three of the game to extend the lead to 32-24. Some back and forth scoring by the Pirates and the Owls led to the score being 42-33 with 3:34 left to go in the half. The Pirates would proceed to go on a nice scoring run and end the half up 53-38

In the third quarter, the Pirates would find themselves extending their lead to as much as 26, when two free throws by Kaela Hilaire put them up 71-45. The Pirates would then continue to keep on scoring and in the fourth quarter, a three pointer by Diandra Darosa would put the Pirates at the triple digit mark, and eventually sealing their victory.

This game would be the first time since Jan. 18th of 2015 when the Pirates would put up triple digits (107 vs. DePaul) and the fourth time in program history (102 v. St. Francis N.Y. and St. Francis Pa.). The star for the Pirates was the freshman from Florida, Femi Funeus, who had 21 points on 7-10 shooting and went 7-11 from the free throw line.

For Kennesaw State, Kamiyah Street put the team on her back scoring over half of the Owls points (41 points on 14-22 shooting). As a team, they shot 40% on the floor and 35% from behind the arc.

The Pirates will return to action tomorrow for the second game of the Seton Hall Tip-off as they will face the UTSA Roadrunners. Tip-off is scheduled for 1pm and you can catch all of the action on 89.5FM or on the iHeartRadio app.

Wilnir Louis can be reached at wilnir.louis@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, Women's Basketball, WSOU