The women's basketball team got picked apart last night against the DePaul Blue Demons and left the Windy City with a disappointing 74-48 loss.
Coming off a loss to Syracuse last week, the Pirates were looking to get back on track, but Blue Demons, who never allowed the Pirates to get going, had other plans.
Seton Hall jumped out to an early 10-9 lead at the McGrath-Phillips Arena. That lead did not hold up though, as DePaul went on an 8-0 run over the next four minutes. The run was led by forward Jasmine Penny, who hitthree field goals over the course of that run.
Pirates' freshman Tabatha Richardson-Smith temporarily ended the Blue Demons' run of unanswered points, executing a wide open layup. Before the Pirates could get a hold of the Blue Demon's though, an 8-0 run turned into a much larger 14-2 run over in just over eight minutes.
Seton Hall missed its first 10 opportunities beyond the arc before senior Terry Green nailed one with a little under five minutes left in the first half. It was one of two three pointers for her in the first half.
After their slow start the Pirates made seven of their next 13 three-point attempts.
"It's huge, when you get down in the Big East, it's hard to come back, the teams are too good to come back," head coach Anne Donovan said. "But it was nice to see Brittany fire back in the second half."
DePaul shot 45.2 percent from the field in the first half, most of which came from Penny's 14 points on 6-6 shooting.
The Pirates found themselves trailing 33-20 at the break and did not close the gap in the second half. Getting outscored 41-28 in the half, propelled DePaul to victory.
Senior Brittany Morris scored 13 points and redshirt sophomore Ka-Deidre Simmons tallied 12. Morris, who scored all 13 of her points in the second half, finished with three 3-pointers to move within eight of tying Seton Hall's all-time career mark of 156 3-pointers.
Morris nailed two threes within the first two minutes of the second, pulling Seton Hall within 12, 38-26. Simmons, who scored 10 of 12 points after the break, also hit a pair of three-point shots. Morris and Simmons accounted for 23 of the teams 28 second half points.
But yet again, Seton Hall found themselves outplayed by the Blue Demons, who would not relinquish a lead of under 20 points for the better half of the second half.
The final bright spot of the game for the Pirates came over three minutes in the second half, where the Pirates found themselves on a 12-0 run.
It was Penny once again who put a stop to the Hall's positive effort.
"It was really transition for her, she was killing us in transition," Donovan said.
Donovan later added that it was "ridiculous" what Penny was able to do throughout the game.
The Hall returns to action this Saturday, Feb. 9, when it hosts the No. 2 University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Walsh Gymnasium at 2 p.m. The game will be the Pirates' annual Play 4Kay game to raise breast cancer awareness and benefit the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
David Heim can be reached at david.heim@student.shu.edu.
