Game preview: Seton Hall faces St. John's at Carnesecca Arena

Date: February 22, 2020

By: Angelique McKenzie

The Seton Hall women’s basketball team (16-10, 9-6 conference) will be taking on St. John’s (15-11, 8-7 conference) this Saturday, Feb. 22, in Queens, N.Y., at Carnesecca Arena.

The Pirates are coming off what was a tough loss to the Creighton Bluejays, 78-66. This loss however doesn’t show the effort they put in on the defensive end. The team won the rebounding battle 34-31 and forced Creighton to turn the ball over 11 times.

What really hurt Seton Hall in this game was their inability to get the ball through the net. For most of the game, the team took ill-advised shots and were unable to get the ball moving well enough to create open looks, finishing with just 16 assists.

Freshman Mya Jackson led the team with 19 points and eight rebounds. This nearly made up for the poor shooting night by Shadeen Samuels who ended up fouling out of the game late. In her 35 minutes on the court, Samuels did have six of the team’s assists and made the most of her opportunities at the line going 4-4.

During the Creighton game, the biggest challenge for the team was to try and get an open shot while trying to break down the Bluejay defense. The trial in this game will be to try and stop Qadashah Hoppie, as the Red Storm run much of their offense through her.

St. John’s isn’t a team to be taken lightly. Even though they are technically fourth from the bottom in the conference, they have put up a fight against the top teams and even beat Butler at the end of December. The Red Storm is only one win away from tying Seton Hall in the Big East standings.

The last time these two teams met up was at the end of January in Walsh Gymnasium and St. John’s walked away with the victory, 82-66. Despite what the score line shows, the Pirates played hard with both Samuels and Alexis Lewis finishing the game with double doubles.

Samuels had 24 points and 12 rebounds while Lewis finished with 16 points and 10 boards. The team will be looking to improve on this performance as well as bounce back from their last game against Creighton.

This game will be broadcasted live on WSOU with coverage starting at 1:45 p.m. Wilnir Louis and Heaven Hill will be on the call, while Dalton Allison and Ben Harris keep you updated from our South Orange, N.J., studios. Make sure to tune in to 89.5 FM WSOU from your car, or on iHeartRadio to catch all the action.

Angelique McKenzie can be reached at angelique.mckenzie@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, WSOU, Women's Basketball