Seton Hall rallies late, drops to Toledo 71-65 in WNIT

Date: March 22, 2019

By Jose Feliciano

 

The Seton Hall Pirates saw their season come to a disappointing end as they fell to the Toledo Rockets 71-65 in the first round of the WNIT.

 

The Pirates fought well, despite being without First-team All-Big East forward Shadeen Samuels, who was out sick with the flu. Selena Philoxy emerged as the leading scorer once again for Seton Hall as she continued her impressive play in the playoffs throughout her time as a Pirate with a game-high 19 points along with seven rebounds.

 

The balanced attack by the Rockets is what doomed the Pirates as they had four players score in the double digits and were led by senior forward Kaayla McIntyre, who scored 16 and gave Philoxy a tough time in the paint throughout the game. Toledo shot an efficient 47% from the field and while Seton Hall nearly matched them with a shooting percentage of 46%, they took advantage of Seton Hall’s mistakes as they had 30 points off of turnovers compared to Seton Hall’s 10.

 

Seton Hall actually outscored the Rockets in three of the four quarters in this one, but it was the second quarter that did them in as they were outscored 27-11 by Toledo. After halftime, the Pirates found themselves down by 15 but cut that deficit to 10 by the end of the third and brought it within four in the final minute of the fourth quarter thanks to some clutch three-pointers from Victoria Cardaci and Nicole Jimenez, who dropped 14 and 15 points in their final games of their college careers. Jimenez played all 40 minutes and hit five three-pointers for all of her points.

 

Toledo passed the ball very well as they had 21 team assists compared to Seton Hall’s 15. The Pirates also missed the presence of their star forward Samuels as they were outscored in the paint 36-24. The Pirates were also down Danielle Robinson and Kaity Healy due to injuries and struggled to play with only eight players ready to go.

 

With the loss, the Pirates finish their season with a 15-16 record after making the playoffs for the fifth time in the last six seasons. Inja Butina, along with Cardaci and Jimenez, also played her final college game as she finished with eight points and seven assists while playing the full 40 minutes. Head Coach Tony Bozzella will surely look to continue the success of this program next season and has a great chance to with the Big East’s most improved player, Samuels, leading the way for the Pirates.

 

Jose Feliciano can be reached at jose.feliciano@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, Women's Basketball, WSOU