Seton Hall University
Fairfield
WBB Too Much for Fairfield in 79-47 Win
12/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Box Score | Box Score 
| Highlights
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The Seton Hall University women's basketball team extended its current winning streak to nine-straight games, the longest for the program since the 1994-95 season, with a 79-47 victory over Fairfield University on Thursday night in Walsh Gym.
Four Pirates scored in double figures, led by the reigning BIG EAST Player of the Week in junior Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas), who finished with 19 points behind four 3-pointers.
It was the 12th-straight win in Walsh for The Hall, the longest stretch for the program since winning 20 in a row on its home floor from 1993-95. The 32-point margin of victory was the largest for SHU this season.
Richardson-Smith and Daisha Simmons (Jersey City, N.J.) fueled a 20-6 Seton Hall run to end the first half, which resulted in the Pirates building a 13-point cushion at the intermission after falling behind 17-16 near the midway point of the opening period.
Samantha Cooper was true from long-distance to turn what was a seven-point deficit into a one-point lead for the Stags, but the Fairfield offense turned ice cold for the remainder of the half. The Stags made just three of their next 18 attempts from the field, including nine-straight misses at one point, also committing five turnovers over the final 10 minutes of the period to see a short lived one-point lead turn into a double-digit advantage for The Hall.
A Richardson-Smith three-pointer at 6:46 ignited that big run, and on Seton Hall's next offensive set she pulled down an offensive board and laid it in to give the Pirates a five-point lead. Seton Hall would score on six of eight possessions to pull in front by 11, capped off by Daisha Simmons stripping Lizzy Ball near midcourt, leading to an easy bucket on the other end to make it 32-21.
Fairfield managed to cut the SHU lead down to seven during the early moments of the second half, pulling within 40-33 on a Kristin Schatzlein jumper at 16:58, but the Pirates' lead would not shrink any further, and following a 21-4 run Seton Hall would not lead by fewer than 20 points the rest of the way.
Daisha Simmons was good for two at 16:43 and a Janee Johnson (Matthews, N.C.) bucket just over a minute later pushed the Pirates' lead back to double figures. Richardson-Smith answered a Casey Smith layup with her fourth triple of the game, making it 49-35.
Fairfield lasted more than 5:30 without hitting a field goal as Seton Hall managed to extend its lead to nearly 30 points as freshman Claire Lundberg (Andover, Minn.) buried a three at 5:45 to make it 70-41. The Pirates shot 43.8 percent (7-for-16) from 3-point range in the win, and 52.4 percent (33-for-63) from the floor, just one one-hundredth of a percent shy of the season-high mark set at Creighton earlier this month.
Seton Hall has a quick turnaround with a home game against NJIT on Friday night at 7 p.m., and the big second-half lead afforded head coach Anthony Bozzella the chance to rest his starters, with none logging more than 28 minutes.
Four of those starters finished in double figures. Bra'Shey Ali (Plainfield, N.J.) scored 11 points with a team-high eight boards, Johnson finished with 10 points and six boards and Daisha Simmons netted 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting with four assists in just 24 minutes.
Seton Hall finished plus-13 on the glass, its largest rebounding margin of the season, and had three players with at least seven boards. Sophomore Lubirdia Gordon (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) came off the bench to finish with eight points and seven boards, five of which were on the offensive end.
The Seton Hall bench outscored Fairfield's reserves 18-2, the first time this season the Pirates won the bench scoring battle.
