Kenneth Cook/Staff Photographer
The Pirates defeated the DePaul Blue Demons on Friday by an 81-80 final. With help from a Ka-Deidre Simmons game-winning layup with three seconds left to play, the Pirates improved to 22-3 on the season, 11-2 in conference play.
The blue and white got into trouble early facing an 18-point deficit in the middle of the first half. The Pirates fought back with four players scoring in double figures. Daisha Simmons led the way for the Hall. The graduate student finished with 23 points. She also got her teammates involved, dishing out five assists.
The hero of game was graduate student Ka-Deidre Simmons who had a great all-around game with 16 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds. Her most important two points came from the game-winning layup. Simmons took the ball the length of the court scoring a tough layup giving the Pirates a one point lead with three seconds left on the clock.
Right behind Daisha Simmons was junior Tabatha Richardson-Smith scoring 22 points with nine points coming from threes. Richardson-Smith also had 13 rebounds finishing with a double-double and three steals.
Graduate Student Janee Johnson nearly had a double-double finishing with 14 points and nine rebounds connecting on four threes.
DePaul senior guard Brittany Hrynko caught fire, scoring 29 points in 31 minutes including seven threes. DePaul’s leading scorer went down early with a leg injury, but came back in the middle of the first half to torch the Pirates. Hrynko hit the go ahead three to put DePaul up by one before Simmons’s game-winner.
Behind Hrynko was junior guard Chanise Jenkins scoring 15 points including nine points from threes. Jenkins also had eight rebounds and five assists. Junior Megan Podkowa and Sophomore Jessica January scored 10 points each.
The Blue Demons connected on 17 threes. Six different players made threes with five different players making two or more in the game. The game seemed to be in DePaul’s hands holding an 18-point lead in the first, but the blue and white fought back and eventually cut the lead to nine at half. The Pirates took their first lead of the game in the second half with five minutes left to play and never looked back.
The Pirates continue on road against Marquette on Sunday. Tip-off is at 3 p.m.
Javon Glenn can be reached at javon.glenn@student.shu.edu or on twitter @javong25.
