Seton Hall University
DePaul
Women's Hoops Falls at DePaul 89-73
2/15/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 15, 2014
CHICAGO, ILL. - The Seton Hall University women's basketball team fell at DePaul University, 89-73, in BIG EAST action on Saturday afternoon at McGrath-Phillips Arena.
Seton Hall (14-10, 5-8) was led by Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.), who finished with 20 points, and Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas), who came up with 17, but the Pirates were unable to keep the sharp shooting Blue Demons (20-5, 11-2) at bay. Megan Rogowski scored a game-high 27 points for DePaul and hit eight of the team's 11 3-point field goals; the Blue Demons shot 11-for-21 (52.4 percent) from downtown as a team.
A fast start and big finish led to DePaul leading 49-33 at the end of the first half. Rogowski powered the Blue Demons out of the gate, scoring 10 of their first 22 points to finish with a game-high 19 in the first half, while athletic post player Jasmine Penny scored nine of her 15 first half points over the final 6:49 of the period.
Behind Rogowski's 3-point barrage, she hit her first three attempts from downtown and finished with five threes in the first half, DePaul stormed out to an early 24-11 lead fewer than seven minutes into the game, shooting 10-for-12 from the field as a team.
Seton Hall did make a run, and in what seemed like a blink of an eye all of a sudden the Pirates were down just 31-28 when senior Brittany Webb (New York, N.Y.) made a move in the paint for two. Richardson-Smith was critical to the SHU run, getting an easy two from close range to snap DePaul's run and burying her second three of the half with 12 minutes to play. However, she had to sit the final seven minutes of the opening period after picking up her second foul.
The Blue Demons went on to miss seven of their next 10 shot attempts after shooting 83.3 percent from the floor through the first seven minutes and made just one field goal, a Rogowski 3-pointer, over a span of more than five minutes as the Pirates came back to pull within three.
But led by Penny in the paint, DePaul closed the first half on an 18-5 run, limiting Seton Hall to just two field goals over the final 6:05. The Pirates uncharacteristically turned the ball over 12 times in the first half, leading to 17 DePaul points; SHU was averaging just 12.0 turnovers per game in league play entering the game.
Neither team came out to take any discernible advantage to start the second half until Seton Hall put together a run to pull within 10 points with just under 10 minutes to play. Redshirt freshman Sidney Cook (Parkton, N.C.) converted on back-to-back possessions to cap off a 9-2 SHU spurt, the closest the Pirates had been in the second, but DePaul was there with the answer.
The Blue Demons scored 13 of the next 16 points with triples coming from Brittany Hrynko and Rogowski, to push their advantage up to 77-57, the largest of the game. Seton Hall was able to pull within 13 down the stretch, but the Pirates were unable to come any closer.
Junior Alexis Brown (Jacksonville, Fla.) also scored in double figures for the Hall, finishing with 12 points to go along with a team-high four assists. Bra'Shy Ali (Plainfield, N.J.) led the Pirates on the glass, pulling down nine boards, scoring six points and blocking three shots.
Seton Hall returns to Walsh Gymnasium for a two-game home stand starting next Tuesday night as the Pirates host Providence Tuesday and then Marquette on Saturday. Tipoff against the Friars is scheduled for 7 p.m.
