The Seton Hall Pirates fell short against the Marquette Golden Eagles, 68-61, on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at Walsh Gymnasium.
The Pirates were coming off a dominant 72-47 victory over the Xavier Musketeers on Saturday, Feb. 8. The Golden Eagles, on the other hand, suffered a brutal 67-65 loss to Butler on Sunday. The Pirates entered this game without sophomore guard Savannah Catalon, the team’s third leading scorer who also set the single-game record for 11 steals in their last game.
Seton Hall struggled offensively in the first quarter, except for star player Jada Eads. The freshman guard put the team on her back, scoring 12 of The Hall’s 14 first-quarter points on 5-7 shooting (71%). Graduate student and leading scorer Faith Masonius especially struggled in the quarter, missing her only shot attempt while turning the ball over three times.
The Pirates had a noticeably hard time defending the paint, as the Golden Eagles scored 24 of their 30 first-half points. This helped offset Marquette’s struggle to hit shots from long range, as they went 1-9 in the first half from behind the arc.
The first half was capped off by a deep three from Eads, giving her 19 points for the first-half, as both teams remained tied, 30-30. Senior guard Lee Volker led Marquette with 12 points, followed by sophomore guard Halle Vice with eight points and seven rebounds.
The third quarter featured a lot of back-and-forth scoring, with three ties and two lead changes in the first eight minutes of play. That changed once Marquette rattled off a 10-2 run to take a 54-46 lead going into the final quarter. Volker and Vice combined for 15 of the Golden Eagles 24 third-quarter points, with sophomore forward and leading scorer Skylar Forbes contributing five points of her own.
Seton Hall continued to struggle offensively early in the fourth, as they went nearly three minutes without scoring until a much-needed layup from Eads. Despite their best efforts, The Hall couldn’t get close to cutting the deficit, at times trailing by as much as 12 points, before reaching the final score of 68-61.
Eads struggled in the fourth, only scoring two of her game-high 26 points while shooting 1-4. Graduate forward Yaya Lops led the team with five points in the quarter.
Eads and graduate forward Kayden Lawson were the only Pirates to reach double figures, with 26 and 10, respectively. Masonius struggled throughout, scoring six points on 3-13 shooting and committing four fouls. Volker led Marquette with 24 points to go with seven rebounds. Vice followed with a double-double effort with 19 points and 13 rebounds.
The Hall finished with 10 steals in the game, a far cry from the season-high 23 steals they had in their last game against Xavier. Overall, the Pirates were subpar, shooting 39% from the field and only making seven of their 12 free-throw attempts (58%).
Seton Hall remains third in the Big East and will look to bounce back as they head to Friartown to face Providence on Sunday, Feb. 16.
John Misiewicz writes for The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at john.misiewicz@student.shu.edu.
