Seton Hall University
Cincinnati
Pirates Handle Cincinnati, 64-56
1/10/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
With the win, Seton Hall improves to 2-0 in the BIG EAST for the first time since the 2007-08 season, which was the last time the Pirates won their conference home and road openers. It was also Seton Hall's biggest conference road win since a 55-47 victory at West Virginia on Feb. 4, 2009.
Simmons has now scored in double figures in seven-straight games and also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds in the win over the Bearcats. She finished 5-for-9 from the field, nailing her only three-point attempt, and was 7-for-9 from the free throw line.
Senior guard Brittany Morris (Raleigh, N.C.) knocked down three three-pointers on the way to a 16-point night, recording her team-leading 11th double figure scoring game of the season.
Senior forward Alexandra Maseko (Harare, Zimbabwe), who played a critical role in the Pirates' ability to extend their lead down the stretch, scored eight of her 10 points in the second half and finished 5-for-9 from the field with five rebounds.
Seton Hall controlled the glass for the seventh-straight game, outrebounding the Bearcats 32-27 on Wednesday night while limiting Cincinnati to 12 points in the paint and four points on second-chance opportunities.
The game started as a defensive battle for both teams as neither Seton Hall nor Cincinnati was able to string a scoring run together until the Pirates started to heat up from long range and finally create some distance.
Despite going nearly five minutes without a field goal Seton Hall faced just a 10-8 deficit with a little over eight minutes remaining in the opening period, holding the Bearcats to 4-for-14 shooting to start the game.
The Pirates regained the lead with a Terry Green (Brentwood, N.Y.) three-pointer which started a run of three-straight possessions with a three for the Pirates. A minute later it was Morris hitting from deep to give Seton Hall a 15-10 lead, and Morris buried her second-straight triple with 6:19 left in the half to bring the Pirate advantage to eight.
As the Pirates went on their 9-0 scoring run, the Bearcats went over five minutes without a basket, missing six-straight shots before Lesha Dunn snapped the cold streak, scoring two of her team-high seven first-half points.
Seton Hall would go on to lead by as many as 10 points, 22-12, when Morris hit a long two-point jumper from just inside the three-point line, but Cincinnait would end the period on a 10-3 run to close to within three points, 25-22, at the half.
Cincinnati's (8-7, 0-2) leading scorer Dayeesha Hollins, did not score her first points until she hit a 15-foot jumper with a little over three minutes to play in the first, and her field goal sparked the strong Bearcat run at the end of the half.
Hollins nailed a three at the 1:42 mark to make it 24-19, and Dunn converted on her third field goal of the half with under a minute remaining to make it a one possession game.
For Hollins, the five points at the end of the first half were just the start of what turned into a scoring avalanche for the Cincinnati junior. Once the second period began she went on to hit her first five three-point attempts of the half, with her fifth triple giving Cincinnati a 43-40 lead with 11:55 to play, matching its largest lead of the game.
But after Hollins' fifth triple the Bearcats went ice cold from the field, hitting only two field goals over the final 12 minutes of the game, the second of which came with only 50 seconds remaining when the Pirates already had an insurmountable lead.
Following hot three point shooting in the first half, it was a solid interior presence that enabled Seton Hall to whittle away at Cincinnati's five-point lead. Back-to-back layups for junior Brittany Webb (New York, N.Y.) pulled the Pirates to within one, 49-48, and a second-chance layup for Maseko put SHU in front by one, 50-49 with seven minutes remaining.
Green finished off the big Seton Hall run with a three pointer 50 seconds later as the Pirates regained a four-point 53-49 lead that they never relinquished.
Cincinnati went 2-for-11 from the field over the final 12 minutes of the game and turned the ball over six times, while once it weathered the Hollins three-point barrage to start the half, Seton Hall ended the game shooting 8-for-15, with seven of those buckets coming inside the painted area.
Hollins finished the game with 23 points on 6-for-9 three-point shooting, missing her final four shot attempts from the field. Dunn also reached double figures for the Bearcats finishing with 11 points.
Seton Hall (7-8, 2-0) returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 12, when it faces St. John's University at the "World's Most Famous Arena," Madison Square Garden. Tipoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
