Despite leading by upwards of 18 points, the Seton hall women’s basketball team fell, 51-43, to Georgetown on Friday afternoon. The tough loss puts the Pirates at 14-13, including 6-10 in conference play.
The Pirates began the game with a few empty possessions before Shadeen Samuels banked in a three from the top of the key. Inja Butina followed that up with two consecutive three-pointers of her own, making that three buckets from beyond the arc to start.
After a Selena Philoxy layup, Nicole Jimenez drained another three for the Pirates, jumping out to a 14-3 lead with 3:01 left in the first quarter. The quarter ended at 16-3 Pin favor of Seton Hall with Georgetown only making one shot.
Seton Hall did not score its first basket of the second quarter until Desiree Elmore hit a jumper two-and-a-half minutes in. Georgetown finally started to pick up the pace and score more, but the Pirates made shots of their own to keep the difference large. Elmore did the bulk of the scoring for the Pirates during this time, with 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting. The first half ended with the Pirates leading 26-13. Seton Hall shot over 50 percent from the field and Elmore led all scorers with 12 points.
The Pirates started the second half strong with baskets from Whitney Howell and Jimenez. The Pirates then continued their scoring, but Georgetown started to find a rhythm, and after a Seton Hall turnover, the Hoyas cut the Pirates’ lead to single digits. Out of a Seton Hall timeout, Georgetown hit its second three of the game, followed by a fast break layup off a turnover to cut the deficit to four points.
Seton Hall turned the ball over again off a jump ball, and Georgetown hit another from beyond the arc to cut the lead to one. Seton Hall was on the wrong end of a 12-0 run before Samuels hit a buzzer-beating three to end the third quarter.
The fourth quarter began with both teams trading jumpers. After two Pirate turnovers, Georgetown hit a three and a layup to get its first lead of the game, 39-38. After a few scoreless possessions by both teams, Georgetown converted an and-one to extend its lead to four.
Jimenez drained a three with under four minutes left to cut the Pirates’ deficit to one, but Georgetown answered with a three of its own. Elmore hit a jumper to cut Seton Hall’s deficit to six, which was its first points since the Jimenez three. The game was capped off by the Pirates’ 24th turnover of the game. Elmore led the Pirates in scoring with 17 points.
The Pirates will try to move on from this on Feb. 24 when they visit Villanova. Tip-off is set at 1:00pm.
Joseph Ippolito can be reached at joseph.ippolito@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @joeippy.
