On Friday, the Seton Hall women’s basketball team was able to complete an impressive comeback effort, as they defeated UNC Greensboro, 71-64, in the last non-conference game of the season. The win wrapped up the West Palm Beach Invitational for the Pirates, as they went 1-1.
Seton Hall was behind UNC Greensboro for most of the contest, trailing for more than 30 minutes and not taking a hold of the game until the beginning of the fourth quarter.
After the first half, the Pirates were down 34-28, shooting just 38 percent from the field and hitting only 25 percent of their 13 three point attempts. Although the offense was not setting the tone of the game, the defense was, as they stayed tenacious with eight forced turnovers in the half.
The second half was a different narrative for the Pirates, at least on the offensive side of the ball. As the defense continued to be a fierce presence, forcing 10 turnovers and holding the Spartans to 30 percent from behind the arc, the offense began to heat up on the court. In the third and fourth quarters, Seton Hall was 58 percent on their shot attempts, while capitalizing on UNC Greensboro’s mistakes by shooting 88 percent from the line.
The major contributors for Seton Hall were Shadeen Samuels and Kaela Hilaire, who led the Pirates in scoring with 17 and 15 points, respectively. Even though they were not stat sheet stuffers, Nicole Jimenez and Inja Butina clocked major minutes for the squad, as Jimenez played all but two minutes of the game, while Butina put in 34 minutes at the point guard position.
Now at 8-3 on the year and finished with its non-conference opponents, Seton Hall will begin Big East play against St. John’s on Dec. 30. The game is set to begin at 1 p.m.at Walsh Gymnasium.
Robert Fallo can be reached at robert.fallo@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @robert_fallo.