Seton Hall
Pirates stymie Providence in 97-55 victory on Sunday afternoon
Date: January 19, 2020By: Heaven Hill
After a blistering first quarter helped them put away the Creighton Bluejays on Friday, the Pirates came out Sunday and dominated the Providence Friars wire to wire 97-55, moving to 12-7 and 5-3 in conference play.
Seton Hall’s head coach Tony Bozzella mentioned before the game that he wanted the Pirates to play physical and apply pressure from start to finish, after they were outscored in the second half by the Bluejays in their previous matchup. Safe to say, Seton Hall heeded his words and they came out in the first quarter with a vengeance.
After Mary Baskerville finished an and-1 to knot the game up at 5-5 with seven minutes left in the first quarter, the game was never close after that as the Pirates completely clamped down on Providence’s offense, and kicked their own offense into gear. They closed the opening period with a 17-0 run, holding the Friars scoreless over the last seven minutes and forcing six turnovers and multiple shot clock violations.
This marks back-to-back first quarters for the Pirates where they came out absolutely firing. Difference is, in both games, Friday against Creighton and Sunday against Providence, they built huge leads with either scorching shooting from beyond the arc or lockdown defense leading to easy points. After a tough road trip where their opening defense was lacking against DePaul and Marquette and their offenses couldn’t keep up over the next three quarters, these last two games were great sights to see.
In the second quarter, the defense didn’t let up, holding the Friars to 3-13 from the field and forcing seven more turnovers. Seton Hall capitalized on these, leading to easy fast break layups. Shadeen Samuels had 11 of her 23 points in the quarter, and Alexis Lewis had eight of her 20 points.
The Pirates went on a 19-0 run and a 39-2 extended run going back to the first quarter in what was just a tremendous display of all around efficiency on both ends. Seton Hall went into halftime up 53-15, which was an astonishing turnaround from the opening three minutes of the game.
After halftime, the Friars came out playing like a team possessed as they outscored the Pirates 26-24 in the third quarter and outscored their own entire offensive output from the first half. There was a glimpse of the Providence team that was once 9-3 before conference play. Luckily for Seton Hall, Providence gave their best shot of the afternoon and only outscored the Pirates by two points, as coach Bozzella’s squad hit four-threes of their own, from McKenna Hofschild and Lewis again.
Entering the fourth quarter with a 36-point lead, this gave Bozzella a chance to give Samuels, Elmore and Lewis some rest, and for lesser-known players to get some burn. Kailah Harris got in the scoring column with a nifty move and added three rebounds as well. Alexia Allesch, after hitting the buzzer beating three to cap off the first quarter against Creighton, added two more threes as she couldn’t miss. Victoria Keenan and Hofschild added two more threes that brought the Pirate bench to their feet as Seton Hall went 8-8 from three-point land in the second half.
All in all, what a way for Seton Hall to cap off the weekend with a huge blowout win Sunday after a great bounce back victory on Friday. The team set a new season-high scoring mark, Samuels cracked 20 points for the first time this year, and they arguably washed the bad taste from that tough road trip from their mouths.
The Pirates move to 12-7, with a week off before they play St. John’s next Sunday. With Wilnir Louis and Liam Plate on the call, it’s sure to be a great matchup.
Heaven Hill can be reached at heaven.hill@student.shu.edu.
Posted in: Sports, WSOU, Women's Basketball
