Despite leading when heading into the final quarter, the Seton Hall women’s basketball team was unable to come away with a victory against Villanova on Friday evening, falling 70-66.
The Pirates got off to a quick start, courtesy of Shadeen Samuels, who had six of their first eight points. Both teams struggled to find a groove as the game opened, shooting under 35 percent each, but at the end of the quarter, the Pirates led 14-11.
The second quarter began similarly to the first, with a basket on Seton Hall’s first possession as Victoria Cardaci hit a shot from beyond the arc. Villanova then answered back with two more threes and tied the game in a hurry.
Renee Nunez / Staff Photographer
With 5:58 left in the first half, Samuels had already accounted for 12 of the Pirates’ 23 points. With 1:54 left in the second quarter, Villanova took its first lead of the game, as the Pirates continued to struggle.
Despite this, Seton Hall managed to take the lead by the end of the halfm 27-25. Villanova finished the half shooting 37 percent from the field, while Seton Hall finished with a 34.5 percent line.
The Pirates kicked off the second half with a 10-0 run, largely in part to three Samuels layups, and forced Villanova to call a timeout. After the timeout, Villanova went on a 7-0 run of its own to force Seton Hall to use one of its timeouts as well.
The Pirates stayed strong on the ball in the game after this, however, and left the quarter with a six-point advantage.
With 3:09 left in the game, though, Villanova tied the game up at 58 and eventually took its first lead of the game at the 2:33 mark. The Pirates continued to cut into the Wildcats’ lead and got within one with 23.1 seconds left, but a scramble for the ball with a few seconds left did not go in the Pirates’ favor and the Wildcats came home with the win.
Samuels and Inja Butina led the way for the Pirates with 27 and 22 points, respectively.
After the game head coach Anthony Bozzella expressed his frustrations about the blown lead.
“We had a chance to extend our lead and we took a lot of poor shots,” Bozzella said. “We took nineteen shots in the first quarter and only made six. That’s not good.”
Seton Hall will look to atone for this loss on Jan. 17 against Georgetown. Tip-off at Walsh Gymnasium is set for 1 p.m.
Joseph Ippolito can be reached at joseph.ippolito@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @joeippy.
