WSOU

Recap: Pirates Lose First Game of Season vs. Fordham, 82-63

Date: November 14, 2021

By: Joe Matthews

Sidney Cooks shoots the basketball over a Fordham defender during a home game.

Seton Hall Athletics

The Pirates suffered their first loss of the season this Saturday, dropping an afternoon contest to Fordham, 82-63.

It was a dominating affair by the Rams, as they controlled the scoreboard for the majority of the game. The Pirates took an early 7-3 lead in the first three minutes, but they would soon relinquish that to Fordham. The Pirates were able to claw back in front briefly in the second quarter, taking a 21-20 lead with 8:24 left in the quarter.

However, they again would relinquish the lead, and would trail for the remainder of the game. Despite trailing, Seton Hall was able to keep the game relatively close throughout the first three quarters, entering the fourth down only six. However, the wheels fell off there, with the Pirates being outscored 24-11 in the final period and ending the game on a 3:26 scoring drought.

Perhaps the biggest reason for the Pirates’ loss was their performance on the glass. They were outrebounded 44-33 and tallied only five offensive rebounds to Fordham’s 14. The Pirates also lost battles in second-chance points, tallying only five compared to Fordham’s 15, and also only put up four points total off the bench.

The Fordham victory was engineered by an all-time performance by Kendell Heremaia. Heremaia tied a career-high in points, dropping 29 on a mind-boggling eight three-pointers.

Outside of Heremaia, Fordham as a whole shot just 1/15 from beyond the three-point arc. However, Heremaia’s 8/11 effort boosted the team percentage all the way up to 34.6%. Even more impressive about Heremaia’s performance was the fact that she did it while battling through injury.

Heremaia was coming off of a game to forget in Fordham’s last contest against Quinnipiac. She shot 1/9 from deep and suffered an ankle injury in the team’s victory. Coming into the game against the Pirates, she remained not at full strength, and even left the game early in the fourth quarter after re-aggravating the injury.

Despite that, she still toughed it out, and re-entered the game, knocking down a few more clutch shots to bury the Pirates.

In addition to Heremaia, the Rams got an unbelievable performance out of Asiah Dingle. The transfer from Stony Brook was coming off of a sensational Fordham debut in the previous game against Quinnipiac which saw her drop 34 points. Against the Pirates, the 5-foot-4 guard followed that performance up with an 18-point, 13-rebound affair.

Despite the loss, the Pirates got a great performance from Sidney Cooks in her Seton Hall debut. Cooks dropped 21 points on 10/15 shooting to go along with nine rebounds. After missing both the Pirates’ exhibition against St. Thomas Aquinas and their season opener against Mount St. Mary’s due to injury, Cooks was finally able to get on the court and show a preview of what she’s going to be capable of doing this year.

In addition to Cooks, the Pirates got a solid performance from Andra Espinoza-Hunter, who dropped 20 points, knocking down a team-leading four threes on six attempts.

On the flipside, it was a rough afternoon for Seton Hall’s Mya Jackson, who tallied just one point, going 0/4 from the field in only 22 minutes after running into foul trouble early in the first quarter.

During postgame, Pirates coach Tony Bozzella cited a lack of toughness from the Pirates as a factor for their down performance. “One thing I can’t teach in this program is toughness. That’s not been a problem in the past, and it’s clearly a problem now,” Bozzella told reporters.

As the Pirates look to get tougher, their upcoming schedule will also get tougher, as they next play host to a Lehigh Mountain Hawks team that currently sits atop the Patriot League.

89.5 FM WSOU will have all the coverage you need for that matchup on Tuesday night, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. Yours truly and Will Swankie will be on the call.

Joe Matthews is an Assistant Sports Director for WSOU Sports and can be reached at joseph.matthews@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, Women's Basketball, WSOU

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