Seton Hall
Pirates Take Down Jefferson in Exhibition
Date: November 4, 2017
(Photo: SHU Athletics)
By: Tim Best
The Seton Hall women's basketball team kicked off their 2017-18 season with an 89-61 victory over Jefferson in an exhibition game on Saturday inside historic Walsh Gymnasium.
In their first games in a Seton Hall uniform, transfers Donnaizha Fountain and Taylor Brown led the way for the Pirates in the winning effort. Fountain, a grad transfer from Temple, tallied a game-high 22 points to go along with 10 rebounds while Brown, a sophomore transfer from Western Kentucky, added 16 points and eight rebounds.
The first quarter was slow as The Hall led only 18-13 after the first ten minutes of play. Towards the end of the first half, the Rams got on a late run to keep the deficit at five going into the locker room at 41-36. Tony Bozzella attributed this late surge to poor transition defense.
"Our transition D today was disgusting," Bozzella said. "We didn't know who we had and we can't play this way. If we don't start fixing this, we're going to get run out of the gym."
One of the bright spots outside of Fountain and Brown in the win was freshman forward Selena Philoxy, who scored 10 points in 16 minutes in her first college game.
"She was tremendous," Bozzella said. "She's a hard worker and she definitely earned her spot in the rotation today."
The Pirates took a 62-52 lead into the fourth quarter, but outscored Jefferson 27-9 over the final ten minutes to run away with a blowout victory.
"One of our goals is to wear the other team down," Bozzella said. "We were out of sync for most of the game, but our energy towards the end of the third quarter definitely helped us since we carried it over into the fourth quarter."
The regular season for Coach Bozzella and his team is now only six days away as they will host in-state rival Saint Peter's on Friday at 1 p.m. Bozzella stressed how important it's going to make drastic improvements defensively if they want to start the season in the win column.
"We have to play not just better transition defense, but better defense all-around," Bozzella said. "Otherwise, we're going to have a big problem on our hands."
Make sure to tune into Friday's regular season opener here on WSOU as Jose Feliciano and Dylan Schreibman will have the call from historic Walsh Gymnasium.
