Seton Hall
Seton Hall Falls in Big East Quarterfinals
Date: March 5, 2018
(Photo: SHU Athletics)
By: Jose Feliciano
The Seton Hall Women's Basketball team fell in the Quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament for the second straight season with a 78-52 loss to the DePaul Blue Demons.
The Pirates had a rough first quarter as the Blue Demons began pouring on the offense early. 18 of DePaul's 27 points in the first quarter came on three-pointers, with three of them coming from junior forward Mart'e Grays, who had a big day overall for the Blue Demons. Meanwhile, Kimi Evans led the way for the Pirates in the first as she hit her first three shot attempts. The Pirates found themselves down 27-17 at the end of the first.
The Seton Hall defense came alive in the second quarter as they held the Blue Demons to only nine points in the quarter. They gave up a 9-0 run to DePaul midway through the quarter but then ripped out a 9-0 run of their own to end it. By halftime, the leading scorer for the Pirates was junior guard Nicole Jimenez with seven points, who also had a rebound and two assists. By the end of the half, the Pirates were only down six as the score was 36-30.
The game began to unravel for the Pirates after halftime as the offense struggled mightily in the second half. The Pirates were outscored in the second half 42-22 as DePaul scored 21 in the third and fourth quarters. No one on the Pirate scored more than five points in the second half besides freshman forward Selena Philoxy, who played well in the third and fourth quarter, scoring 11 points and bringing down five rebounds.
The Pirate defense faltered in the second half as well as they were unable to stop DePaul guard Ashton Millender. Millender did the most damage to the Pirates in the second half and did it all from behind the arc as she scored 12 points all on three-pointers.
Barring an invite to postseason basketball, this was the last time Jaquan Jackson will have played basketball as a Seton Hall player as she is due to graduate this spring. Her collegiate career ended on a sour note as she scored only two points in today's game as well as grabbing four rebounds. She ends her Seton Hall career after playing 59 games as a Pirate while scoring 779 points in the process.
After finishing the season with a 16-15 record, Head Coach Tony Bozzella is confident in the program's direction.
"We have four starters returning, we have 11 of our 12 players returning," Coach Bozzella said after the loss, "We've made a big step in our program moving forward."
The Pirates will look to improve on this year's record in the 2018-2019 season.
Jose Feliciano can be reached at jose.feliciano@student.shu.edu
