Katherine Cahalin/Staff Photographer
After putting up a fight against St John’s, the Pirates came out on top with a 78-73 win over the Red Storm. With the win, the Pirates have now extended their record to 20-2 (8-1 in the Big East) and remain undefeated at Walsh Gym.
Coach Bozzella credits the fans to the team’s immense success at home. After today’s sellout game, he stated “We are a very difficult team to beat at home. Yes because we are comfortable here but more importantly because our fans are great and loud, it’s tremendous.”
The last time these teams met was on January 2nd in Queens, where the Pirates fell 59-50. In this meeting, the Pirates struggled to lead and allowed for St. John’s forward Amber Thompson to get 20 rebounds. In today’s game, the Pirates didn’t give up a lead and held Thompson to only eight rebounds.
“Our mindset today was to play the way we’re going to play. If they’re going to beat us let them beat us playing Seton Hall basketball. Last time we played St. John’s basketball. I think we played Seton Hall basketball today; we ran the ball up and down the floor, there was excitement, we turned them over a little bit. Even at the end when they started to make a run we still played our way”, said Coach Bozzella
The game was scoreless up until the 18th minute with the help of a three from Ka-Deidre Simmons. The Pirates maintained this lead for the entirety of the first half. At halftime, the Pirates led the Red Storm 40-24.
Among the leading scorers for the Pirates was Daisha Simmons who reached double digits in points early in the game, ending the first half alone with 15 points. Other leading scorers for the pirates included Ka-Deidre Simmons and Tabitha Richardson Smith, who recorded a double-double.
Showing action off the bench, sophomore Tara Inman came in hungry with three points and one rebound. Also seeing action off the bench were Tiffany Jones with three points, Kat Egan, and Lubirdia Gordon who had four points and three rebounds
In the second half the Pirates led the Red Storm by as many as 23 in the second half, but in the last five minutes the pirates lead began to fall to the single digits. Attributing to this were St John’s points off of Seton Hall turnovers and foul trouble caused by the Pirates. The Pirates reached the foul limit in the second half and allowed for St. John’s to shoot 92% from the line.
“We found a way to finish the game. We got spoiled, you’re not going to beat a team of St. John’s ability by over 20 points”, Coach Bozzella said.
The Pirates return to action this Friday night where they take on Providence. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. in Walsh Gym.
Olivia Mulvihill can be reached at Olivia.mulvihill@student.shu.edu or on twitter @OliviaMulvihill
