Seton Hall University
NJIT
Women's Basketball Easily Rolls Past NJIT, 74-48
12/21/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2013
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SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Sophomore Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) scored 21 points to lead three players in double figures as the Seton Hall University women's basketball team defeated NJIT, 74-48, on Saturday afternoon in Walsh Gymnasium.
Richardson-Smith, the BIG EAST's leading scorer, netted 19 of her game-high 21 points in the first half, and knocked down four 3-point field goals while shooting 8-for-15 from the field with five rebounds and three steals in the win. Redshirt-sophomore Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) finished scored 14 points with six assists, four steals and four boards.
Junior guard Alexis Brown (Jacksonville, Fla.) made her season debut for Seton Hall after missing the first nine games of the season with an injury and looked as if she had been on the court all season long scoring 11 points with seven boards and a career-high seven assists in just 22 minutes of action.
Redshirt-freshman Sidney Cook (Parkton, N.C.) narrowly missed out on recording her second-career double-double pulling down 15 boards while scoring nine points and blocking a career-high four shots. Cook has recorded double-digit rebound performances in five-straight games and is averaging 13.6 rpg over that stretch.
Seton Hall answered a pair of early NJIT 3-pointers with a 28-2 run to take a commanding 32-10 lead a little over 13 minutes into the action. The Highlanders scored on their first three possessions and saw Denisa Demiterova drain back-to-back long-range field goals to take an 8-4 lead 93 seconds into the game.
Richardson-Smith answered with a 3-pointer of her own and a couple of Janee Johnson (Matthews, N.C.) free throws with 16:51 left in the first gave the Pirates a 9-8 lead and they would not trail for the rest of the game.
NJIT hit just one of its next 14 field goal attempts and turned the ball over 10 times over a period of 12:11 as the Pirates steadily extended their lead to 22 points, 32-10, before Alana Dudley ended the Highanders' scoring drought with a 3-pointer with 6:16 remaining in the half.
Richardson-Smith hit her third 3-pointer of the game fewer than five minutes into the action to put the Hall ahead 18-8. She shot 7-for-9 from the field and 4-for-5 from long range in just 13 minutes on the court in the first half.
Simmons was also in double figures in the first half, finishing with 10 points on 6-for-6 shooting from the free-throw line, and Cook grabbed a game-high 12 boards with five points a pair of blocks and two steals. The Pirates saw six different players hit at least one field goal in the first half and the Hall took advantage of 14 first-half turnovers from NJIT, outscoring the Highlanders 17-0 in points off turnovers and 6-0 on the break.
NJIT's difficulty taking care of the basketball persisted in the second half as the Highlanders gave the ball away seven times and missed their first five shots from the field over the first 4:55 as Seton Hall extended its lead to 34 points with buckets from Richardson-Smith, redshirt sophomore Bra'Shey Ali (Plainfield, N.J.) and Cook.
NJIT cut its deficit down to 23 points midway through the second half, but Brown scored six unanswered points, capped off by a 3-pointer with 7:47 to play to put Seton Hall back up by 29, 65-36, and the Pirates would lead by as many as 34 points down the stretch.
Seton Hall will have a week off before opening conference play at St. John's on Saturday, Dec. 28, in Queens, N.Y. Tipoff at Carnesecca Arena is scheduled for 2 p.m.
