Credit: GR Productions
Pirates Look to Start 2025 Strong vs Villanova
Published: Wednesday, January 1, 2025
by Kyle Ferreira
VILLANOVA, PA - The Seton Hall Pirates (10-3) look to begin 2025 with a road victory vs rivals Villanova Wildcats (7-6) on Wednesday.
Sunday’s win against Butler was an overall success for the Pirates, especially for one player. Freshman standout, Jada Eads, continued her tremendous stretch of games with another impressive showing. For the fourth consecutive game, Eads earned a new career-high in points, with 26 vs the Bulldogs.
Eads has stepped up greatly in the absence of Savannah Catalon, establishing herself as one of the best freshmen in the conference. Offensively, her shooting woes seem to have been figured out, while defensively she is morphing into a threat for opposing teams. Her four steals Sunday were a career-high, which led to her being named BIG EAST Player and Freshman of the Week Monday.
Depth-wise, more players contributed after Eads. Faith Masonius and Kaydan Lawson were the only other players to score vs Providence back on December 21st. Lawson continued her great conference play with nine ponts, four rebounds, and three assists vs Butler. Meanwhile, Messiah Hunter and Savanna Jones got in on the action as well; Hunter attacked the glass with six rebounds, and Jones had a career-high eight points.
Defensively, this Pirates squad has continued to apply the press and be relentless in forcing turnovers. In 12 out of 13 games this season, Seton Hall have forced more turnovers than the opposing squad; in their first two BIG EAST contests specifically, they have forced a combined 50 turnovers, with 30 coming vs Providence and 20 vs Butler.
Arguably, Villanova will be the Pirates’ first test of BIG EAST play. The Wildcats are off to a decent 7-6 start but are expecting more, after appearing in the WBIT Championship game last season. One big reason for the sluggish start is the loss of their tremendous scorer, Lucy Olsen, who transferred to Iowa in the offseason.
However, the Wildcats have another talented scorer emerging and is only a freshman. Jasmine Bascoe, like The Hall’s Eads, has had a successful start to her collegiate career. Bascoe is an overall complete player, able to shoot efficiently, play great defense and find her teammates to make plays.
Within her terrific start, she has started her college career by scoring double digit points in 12 of her first 13 games. She has the potential to be a great scorer like Villanova legend Maddy Siegrist, but time will tell. But with other great players like Maddie Webber, Maddie Burke, and Denae Carter, it should be a competitive outing for the Pirates.
The Pirates will look for their first win within this series since February 13th, 2022. If the Pirates can grab the win at Finneran Pavilion, they will start conference play 3-0 for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
Catch the game live on 89.5 FM WSOU on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., with pregame coverage starting at 8 p.m. Chris Jones and Brian Henderson will be on the call for this BIG EAST clash.
Kyle Ferreira can be reached at kyle.ferreira@student.shu.edu.Posted in: sports,