Seton Hall University
St. John's
Players Mentioned
RV/#25 WBB Topples St. John's 78-73
2/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Box Score | Box Score 
| Highlights
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The RV/#25 Seton Hall University women's basketball team withstood a frenzied second-half rally from the NR/RV St. John's Red Storm to pick up a 78-73 victory on Sunday afternoon before a sellout crowd in Walsh Gymnasium.
Seton Hall led by as many as 24 points in the second half, but saw St. John's hit nine-straight field goals and score 15 unanswered points to pull within two, 73-71, with just under two minutes remaining. However, the Red Storm would miss their final six attempts from the field as Seton Hall prevailed by five.
With the win, Seton Hall improved to 20-2 overall and maintained sole possession of first place in the BIG EAST with a 9-1 record in league play. The Pirates tied the 1980-81 squad's program record for fastest team to reach 20 wins, and have now posted back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 1993-94 and 1994-95, the only two times they qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
It was also Seton Hall's 19th-straight win at home, leaving the Pirates one shy of matching the program record for consecutive home victories, a win streak that stretched from 1993-95. SHU is 14-0 at home this season and 29-5 since Anthony Bozzella took over the program.
After Danaejah Grant converted a pair at the line to make it a two point game, graduate Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) came up with a big-time bucket for The Hall on the other end of the court, snapping her team out of a 6:29 field goal drought with a pull-up jumper in the paint.
On the ensuing St. John's (15-6, 6-4) possession, Aaliyah Lewis misfired from three and Simmons came down with the rebound. She calmly sank two from the line at the other end to secure the win.
Three-point shooting was critical to the outcome of the game as Seton Hall shot 10-of-26 from beyond the arc while St. John's connected on just a pair of their 10 attempts. The Pirates had hit just six 3-pointers combined in the four previous matchups against the Red Storm before going off for 10 treys on Sunday afternoon.
The proficient long-range shooting came from all over the court with six Seton Hall players hitting at least one 3-pointer. Daisha Simmons (Jersey City, N.J.) controlled the scoring early for SHU, netting 15 of her 21 points in the first half. Her second three in the first seven minutes of action made it 13-9 SHU and sparked an early 8-0 run for the Pirates.
Sophomore Tara Inman hit from the left corner at 4:24 as Seton Hall went up by 10 for the first time, 30-20. The outside proficiency continued as Tiffany Jones (New York, N.Y.) and Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) would record triples on consecutive possessions late in the half and the Pirates led 40-24 at the break thanks to a 14-2 run where they were 6-of-7 from the field.
Seton Hall shot 6-of-15 from 3-point range in the first half while the Red Storm were 0-for-3 from downtown and just 7-of-24 from the field. That offensive rhythm carried over to the start of the second half.
Janee Johnson (Matthews, N.C.) provided the Pirates with a 20-point cushion on her first triple of the game at 53-33, and she would score from long distance 1:48 later to extend the lead to 60-37. Ka-Deidre Simmons got in on the action with her second trey at 12:53 to give Seton Hall its largest lead of 63-39.
Ka-Deidre Simmons and Daisha Simmons would both top 20 points for the Pirates, scoring 22 and 21 points respectively. Richardson-Smith recorded her second double-double of the season with 14 points and a team-high 13 rebounds. After being outrebounded by a 48-40 margin in the first meeting of the year back on Jan. 2, the Pirates held a 39-38 edge on the glass Sunday, grabbing 14 offensive rebounds which led to 18 second-chance points
Aliyyah Handford led three players in double-figures for St. John's with 26 points. Grant finished with 23 while shooting 12-for-12 from the line. St. John's, which entered the game last in the BIG EAST shooting 59.9 percent from the line, was 23-of-25 (92.0 percent) against Seton Hall. Grant came in as a 65.5 percent shooter from the line, and Amber Thompson, who hit all seven of her free-throw attempts, was just 9-of-21 from the stripe all season prior to Sunday.
The win snapped a St. John's five-game winning streak over Seton Hall, and was the first time SHU bested the Red Storm since a 60-51 win on March 2, 2013.
Seton Hall returns to action next Friday night, when it hosts the Providence Friars in Walsh Gymnasium. The game will be nationally televised on Fox Sports 1, with tipoff scheduled for 8 p.m.
