Pirates suffer tough loss at No. 14 Marquette

By: Robert Ruszkowski

The Seton Hall Women's Basketball Team lost the first of their two-game road trip at the hands of the No. 14 Marquette Golden Eagles by a score of 96-60 on Friday afternoon in front of an energetic crowd at the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee.

The Golden Eagles started the game on a quick 8-0 run, but the Pirates fought back over the next few minutes to bring the score to 13-10 in favor of Marquette. However, this was the closest Seton Hall would get as Marquette answered back with a 17-2 run and kept the Pirates at a distance for good.

After trailing 35-17 at the end of the first quarter, Seton Hall was able to slow down Marquette's scoring in the second but were unable to get going offensively as Inja Butina was in foul trouble early on, and both Kaela Hilaire and Shadeen Samuels briefly left the game with leg injuries. The Golden Eagles ended the quarter on a 7-2 run and their lead grew to 25 points as the teams headed into halftime.

With the game already becoming out of reach for Seton Hall, the Pirates went back and forth with the Golden Eagles in the third quarter as Seton Hall was able to start sinking their shots and prevented Marquette from going on any lengthy runs. Shadeen Samuels stepped up in the quarter by scoring nine of her 15 points in the third, but it wasn't enough to close the gap as Marquette still led 79-51 going into the final period.

The fourth quarter brought more offensive struggles for Seton Hall though as they were only able to score nine points over the 10 minutes and were once again outscored by Marquette. Although the Golden Eagles only scored 17 points themselves, they were leading by 40 points at one time, however the Pirates cut the deficit to 36 as the game ended in favor of the Golden Eagles.

For the Pirates, Victoria Cardaci led in scoring with 16 points as Shadeen Samuels contributed 15 points and seven rebounds. Kaela Hilaire led both teams with six assists, and Selena Philoxy recorded a double-double with 10 points, a game-leading 11 rebounds, and four steals.

With the loss, the Pirates fall to 11-6 Overall and 3-3 in Big East play as they slip into fifth place in the Conference Standings. Marquette improves to 15-3 Overall and 6-0 in Conference games as they are now in sole possession of first place in the conference after Butler's triple overtime loss.

The Pirates will conclude their road trip on Sunday when they travel to Chicago to face #24 DePaul (12-5 Overall, 3-2 Conference). Tip-off is set for 3:00 pm ET and WSOU will have coverage starting at 2:45 pm.

Robert Ruszkowski can be reached at ruszkoro@shu.edu or on Twitter at @RobertRusz