Seton Hall University
Xavier
WBB Back in 1st After 77-60 Win at Xavier
2/27/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
CINCINNATI, OHIO - The RV/#25 Seton Hall University women's basketball team eased past Xavier University, 77-60, on Friday night in Cincinnati, Ohio, moving back into first place in the BIG EAST standings. The Pirates (25-4, 14-3) can clinch the No. 1 seed in the BIG EAST Tournament with a win in their regular season finale at Butler on Sunday afternoon.
After jumping out to an 18-3 lead against the Musketeers, the Pirates were in firm control the rest of the way. Four players scored in double figures for The Hall, led by Tabatha Richardson-Smith's (Bay City, Texas) game-high 24 behind four 3-pointers.
Graduate Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) continued her assault on the school record books with 21 points, eight assists and four steals. She jumped a pair of all-time greats in Debbie Hartnett and Dana Wynne to take over third place all-time with 1,637 points, and now needs just 32 to move up to second-place. Simmons is just four assists away from tying the Seton Hall career record of 533.
Junior Tiffany Jones (New York, N.Y.) came off the bench to record her second double-double of the season, scoring 13 points with a team-high 14 rebounds. Daisha Simmons (Jersey City, N.J.) rounded out the double-digits scorers with 11 points to go along with seven assists and five steals.
Xavier missed its first 11 field goal attempts and turned the ball over five times as Seton Hall sprinted out to an 18-3 lead. Four different players recorded a field goal during that stretch, led by Ka-Deidre Simmons' eight points. Daisha Simmons came away with a Ka-Deidre Simmons deflection, leading to a Tabatha Richardson-Smith floater along the baseline at 16:04 to make it 12-2, leading to a Xavier timeout.
After the timeout, the Musketeers turned the ball over again. Daisha Simmons made an athletic play, leaping along the sideline to snatch a Kindell Fincher pass out of the air, then scored on the other end. Jones capped the big start with a bucket in the paint, then Xavier finally converted its first field goal, a second-chance layup from Raeshaun Gaffney at 13:51.
Xavier would make a run, scoring the next seven as Seton Hall went 3:26 without a point. Jada Byrd drove to the rim to make it 18-10, but after Richardson-Smith knocked down her first of three first-half 3-pointers, the Pirates led by at least double digits the rest of the way.
With that triple, Richardson-Smith, who finished with 17 points in the first half, was just getting started. She capped off string of seven-straight SHU points with a layup at 2:24, and buried her third three a mere four seconds before the half to guide SHU to a 22-point cushion at the intermission.
Xavier turned the ball over 16 times in the first half, leading to 16 Seton Hall points. By the end of the game, Seton Hall had forced 19 turnovers, leading to 24 points. The Musketeers were limited to 7-of-33 shooting (21.2 percent) from the field in the first half, hitting just three shots over the final 10:21.
Ka-Deidre Simmons scored the first five points of the second half for The Hall, as the lead stretched to 25. The Pirates led by as many as 27 down the stretch, with Daisha Simmons feeding Lubirdia Gordon (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) for a wide open layup at 8:03 to make it 68-41.
Aliyah Zantt scored 17 points to lead Xavier, shooting 3-of-7 from 3-point range.
Seton Hall will have a chance to win at least a share of the BIG EAST regular season title on Sunday. Technically the Pirates have never won a regular season crown; SHU did finish first in their division at the end of the 1995-96 campaign.
The 14 conference wins are the most since the Pirates finished 16-2 in league play in 1993-94. At 25-4 overall, Seton Hall is just two wins away from matching the program record (27) which came that same year.
