Seton Hall
Game Preview: Seton Hall opens up Big East Tournament against St. John's (3/9/19)
Date: March 8, 2019By Dalton Allison
The Seton Hall women’s basketball team will face off against St. John’s for the second consecutive game on Saturday afternoon in the first round of the Big East Tournament. The game will take place in Wintrust Arena in Chicago at 3 p.m.
The Pirates last played on Sunday against St. John’s in Carnesecca Arena when they pulled off a 76-72 comeback victory over the Red Storm. The Pirates finished the first half leading St. John’s 41-38. In the opening 20 minutes, Shadeen Samuels anchored the Pirates’ offense with 21 points and four rebounds, followed by Desiree Elmore’s 13 points and pair of rebounds. Qadashah Hoppie led the way for St. John’s by accounting for 13 of the Red Storm’s 38 points.
St. John’s finished the third quarter leading Seton Hall by 11 points, 64-53. The Pirates went on a 22-8 run in the fourth quarter to seal the road win and secure a season sweep against St. John’s. Samuels registered a game-high of 33 points, and her performance was complimented by Elmore’s 19 points and five boards. The leading scorer for the Red Storm was Hoppie who had 20 points and shot 50% from the field.
Collectively, Seton Hall had a field goal percentage of 50% by connecting on 26/52 attempted shots. The Pirates went 6/15 from beyond the arc and made 72% of free-throw attempts at the line. St. John’s shot 44.8% from the field and sank 31.8% of their attempts from distance against Seton Hall’s defense.
Coming into Saturday’s Big East Tournament opener, Seton Hall is the eighth seed and St. John’s is the ninth seed in the tournament. If Seton Hall wins on Saturday, they would complete a season sweep against St. John’s by defeating the Red Storm three times this season. The last time Seton Hall swept a team by vanquishing them three times in a season was last year against Xavier. Similarly, the Pirates beat the Musketeers in both regular season games and in the first round of the Big East Tournament.
On the season, Seton Hall is third in conference scoring with 75.3 points-per-game. St. John’s is in the sixth spot in this category, with an average of 64.6 points-per-game. In terms of scoring defense, the Red Storm are the fifth best team in the conference by giving up an average of 62.1 points-per-game. The Hall is second to last in scoring defense because they surrender an average of 72.1 points-per-game to their opponents.
Samuels finished the regular season as the leading scorer in points-per-game with 22.0 points-per-game in conference play. The Red Storm’s Hoppie finished 22nd in conference scoring with an average of 11.8 points-per-game.
On Wednesday, The Big East announced the conference’s regular season awards. Seton Hall’s Samuels won the Big East Most Improved Player Award and was named to the All-Big East First Team. Tiana England of St. John’s was named to the All-Big East Honorable Mention Team. England’s teammate, Kadaja Bailey was selected as a part of the Big East All-Freshman Team.
89.5 FM WSOU will have all of the coverage for Saturday’s first-round contest between Seton Hall and St. John’s, following coverage of Seton Hall men’s basketball against Villanova. Chris Russo and Wilnir Louis will provide the in-studio coverage, while Jose Feliciano and Dalton Allison have the call from inside Wintrust Arena in Chicago.
Michael Daly can be reached at michael.daly@student.shu.edu.
Posted in: Game Previews, Sports, Women's Basketball, WSOU
