Seton Hall University
Rutgers
Pirates' Historic Season Ends in NCAA 1st Round
3/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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STORRS, CONN. - The Seton Hall University women's basketball team saw its historic 2014-15 season come to an end with a 79-66 loss to Rutgers University in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night in Storrs, Conn. The Pirates, who qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1995, finish their season with an overall mark of 28-6, setting a school record for victories in the process.
Rutgers led by double figures in each half, and while the Pirates would fight to get back into the game multiple times, ultimately the Scarlet Knights came up with too many big plays down the stretch.
Although the final margin was 13 points, there were several key plays during what was a close game most of the way that enable Rutgers to advance to the second round.
After falling behind by nine fewer than seven minutes into the action, Seton Hall stormed back with 9-0 run, taking its first lead 23-21 as Tiffany Jones (New York, N.Y.) finished in the paint, but she was whistled for a technical foul for excessive celebration. That was the only lead of the game for Seton Hall. Kahleah Copper hit one at the line and eight seconds later Cynthia Hernandez would connect from three to put Rutgers back up by two.
Following the technical foul, Seton Hall was scoreless for 4:41 and went 7:30 without a field goal as the Scarlet Knights built a 13 point lead.
It was after a Tyler Scaife 3-point play with 86 seconds remaining in the first the Pirates faced that 13 point deficit, but they responded with seven unanswered to end the half, capped by a Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) 3-pointer with six seconds on the clock.
Rutgers started strong again in the second, scoring the first five points of the period to regain a double-digit advantage, and the Scarlet Knights went up 53-41 on a Copper jumper.
Again, Seton Hall would come back, producing a 15-3 run over the next five minutes, fueled by full court defensive pressure that resulted in four Rutgers turnovers over that stretch. As Janee Johnson (Matthews, N.C.) buried a three from the corner to tie the game 56-56 all of the momentum rested with The Hall, but they were never able to regain the lead.
It was a one point game was Betnijah Laney hit a big three with 4:43 remaining to put the Scarlet Knights up by four. A minute later she did it again, sinking her career-best fourth 3-pointer of the game, while lifting Rutgers to an eight-point lead.
Laney finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds, shooting 4-of-6 from 3-point range. Copper led all scorers with 21 points, shooting 7-of-12 from the field with eight boards. The Scarlet Knights were 7-of-13 from the line as a team, for the most 3-pointers they hit all year.
Richardson-Smith led three Pirates in double figures with 18 points, knocking down four 3-pointers. Jones finished with 17 points and seven boards, while Johnson scored 12 points, shooting 3-of-7 from beyond the arc.
Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) wrapped up what will unquestionably go down as one of the best careers a player has ever had at Seton Hall with five points, eight assists and six rebounds. She leaves Seton Hall ranked second in program history in scoring (1,717), first in assists (562) and second in steals (257). She had a program-record 194 assists this year, ranking in the top-25 in the nation in assists per game.
Seton Hall won 28 games for the first time in its history and racked up the most wins since posting a 27-5 record during its run to the Sweet 16 in 1994. Head coach Anthony Bozzella's Pirates returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in two decades, won the first BIG EAST Regular Season title in program history, and set a school-record with 2,569 points.
