Katie Cahalin/Staff Photographer
The Seton Hall Pirates women’s basketball team saw their eight game winning streak snapped in an 81-73 loss at the hands of the Creighton Bluejays on Sunday afternoon at Walsh Gymnasium.
The Pirates (21-3, 10-2) had won 20 straight games at Walsh prior to Sunday’s defeat. A victory would have given them a program record 21st straight home victory.
“Well that was disappointing, clearly I give Creighton a tremendous amount of credit. They came in, they hit us right away. We were definitely taken aback,” said head coach Tony Bozzella.
The Bluejays (14-10, 7-6) came out the gates strong, taking a 42-37 lead into halftime. The three point shot was a huge factor in Creighton’s success as they shot 8-17 from behind the arc in the first half and 11-26 for the game.
“We got outscored 33-9 from the three point line, that’s disgusting. We lost by 24 points on the three point line, we can’t do that,” said Bozzella.
Seton Hall found themselves down 56-46 with 14:09 remaining in the second half before making a strong effort to climb back into the game behind a full court press which forced Creighton into six turnovers in seven possessions.
Tabitha Richardson-Smith’s layup gave the Pirates a 61-60 lead. Daisha Simmons then scored on an up and under move to give the Pirates a 63-60 lead.
Ka-Deidre Simmons, recently named to the Nancy Liebermann Award watch list, hit a jumper to give The Hall a 71-66 lead, their largest of the game.
And then the wheels started to come off for the Pirates.
“You really think at home up five, them playing their second game on the road in three days, you would think we were in great shape. But we reverted back to playing very selfish play the last five minutes on the defensive end and the offensive end,” said Bozzela.
The Bluejays regained the lead on a three pointer by Mc McGrory, and they never looked back. Creighton went on an 11-0 run to finish the game including four made free throws to seal the victory in the final minute.
Free throws may have been the difference in this game as the Blue Jays shot 18-20 from the stripe while the Pirates went a paltry 12-23 as noted by Coach Tony Bozzella
“Ultimately our foul shooting was disgusting… We would have outscored them if we made our foul shots.”
Despite the loss, Tiffany Jones was a bright spot for Seton Hall. The forward lead the blue and white in scoring finishing with a career high 20 points and 13 rebounds and was key in the Pirates second half run.
Creighton’s potential Big East Player of the Year Marissa Janning was a problem all afternoon for Seton Hall. The junior guard flirted with a triple-double finishing with a 15-8-8 stat line.
The Pirates will face a two game road trip with games against the DePaul Blue Demons on Friday, February 13th and then follow with a matchup against the Marquette Golden Eagles on Sunday, February 15th.
Matt Zeigafuse can be reached at matthew.zeigafuse@student.shu.edu or on twitter @mattzeigafuse.
