Jimenez pushes Pirates past St. Peter's, 90-47

Date: December 2, 2018

By: Richard Behan

The Seton Hall Pirates defeated the St. Peter’s Peacocks by the score of 90-47 Sunday afternoon inside Walsh Gymnasium.

Coach Bozzella has stressed that the new offense put in place will be high-scoring and fast paced, and today was no different. The beneficiary today was Nicole Jimenez, who finished with a school-record nine three pointers. Jimenez did it all Sunday afternoon as she stuffed the stat sheet with 33 points (a career high), three assists, and nine steals.

Jimenez’s tremendous shooting was displayed when she went 11-15 from the floor and 9-13 from beyond the arc.  Her nine steals were also one shy of the program record. Jimenez also became the 10th player in school history to score at least 33 points in a single game. Another offensive bright spot was Victoria Cardaci, who shot 40% from three on 12 points.

As a team, the Pirates shot 40% from the floor and a whopping 48% from 3-point range. The Hall also led in rebounds (51-44), second chance points (21-10), and steals (23). St. Peter’s turned the ball over a staggering 32 times, which is above the Pirates season average, which is at 26 turnovers per game.

Coach Bozzella had this to say about his team’s effort: "I was really pleased with our effort today, bringing energy from the start of the game to the finish. We have played a lot of games in a short amount of time and have gotten through it with great results.”

Quite possibly the biggest stat of the day saw the Pirates outhustling the Peacocks to the tune of 30-0 in the fast break category. Coach Bozzella realized this needed to be part of the game plan: “They push up a lot, so we wanted throw the ball over the top. They pressed almost the entire game, and we got them to stop pressing, which says a lot.”

Before returning home on December 30th, Bozzella realizes that there are tough teams ahead. “We are going to play some great teams, none of them here, so let’s see how we adapt.” 

The Pirates are back in action on Saturday, December 8th in Hartford, as they get set to take on the #2 UConn Huskies.

Richard Behan can be reached at richard.behan@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, Women's Basketball, WSOU