Game Preview: Women's basketball closes out season at St. John's (3/3/19)

Date: March 2, 2019

By Ryan Clayton

 

The Seton Hall women’s basketball team (14-14 Overall 6-11 Big East) look to end the season on a high note when they travel to Queens, New York to take on the St. John’s Red Storm (14-14 Overall 7-10 Big East) tomorrow at 2 pm.

 

In their last outing the Pirates took on The Villanova Wildcats and lost 73-68 despite a late push in the fourth quarter. First half scoring was scarce for The Hall as they only put up 25 points in the half. This was one of the areas the Pirates struggled in most, as the Wildcats had a scoring barrage totaling 39 points when the half was done. The biggest outlier was how Seton Hall was unable to defend Nova’s three-point shooting, with Nova making 7 of their first 11 from outside and ending the half on top 39-25.

 

As rough as the first half was for the Pirates, it never deterred them or kept them out of the game as in the final minutes of the fourth they started to make a comeback. Inja Butina and Nicole Jimenez where scorching hot from mid-range and three as the Hall sniffed at a comeback still being down 69-65 with just 31 seconds to go. Jimenez’s late three with just six seconds to go would not be enough to get the win as the Pirates fell 73-68.

 

The St John’s Red Storm come into this match against Seton Hall having a week of rest after their nail biter against the Georgetown Hoyas that ended with the Johnnies falling 82-80. The Storm were firing on all cylinders in the first half as they had their biggest lead of the game in 15 points, and would head to the locker room with a 49-40 lead. With three minutes to go in the third, Georgetown took the lead from the Storm and exchanged leads all the way into the fourth when the Hoyas finally snatched defeat from St John's final score 82-80.

 

Last time the Hall faced off against the Red Storm was over two months ago, and Seton Hall beating St Johns convincingly by a score of 77-67. The Pirates relied on the outside shooting efforts of basically the entire team in the first half and got easy looks in the paint (26 points) and a solid amount of bench points (19 points) to secure their first Big East win of the season.   

 

This is a crucial game for both Seton Hall and St John’s as far as seeding goes as, the teams currently sit at both 8th (St John’s) and 9th (Seton Hall.) This match-up is also likely to be a preview for the Big East Tournament due to the fact that if the season ended today the teams would face off against one another as the first game in the first round.

 

The game is set to begin at 2pm, but make sure to tune in to 89.5 FM WSOU at 1:45 pm for all the pregame coverage, when the Seton Hall Pirates take on the St John’s Red Storm. Pre and post game coverage will be brought to you by Bob Towey and Andrea Keppler, with Frank Frasco and Michael Daly calling the game from Queens, inside of Carnesecca Arena.

 

Ryan Clayton can be reached at ryan.clayton@student.shu.edu. 

Posted in: Game Previews, Sports, Women's Basketball, WSOU