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The Seton Hall women’s basketball team’s offense struggled to heat up on Monday in the Big East Tournament semifinals, falling 77-56 at the hands of the Creighton Bluejays.
After scoring 93 points in the win over Marquette on Sunday, the Pirates trailed Creighton 29-21 at halftime after shooting 9-for-30 from the floor in the first 20 minutes of play.
The Pirates led for a total of 28 seconds during the entire game, as the shots didn’t fall for The Hall all day long.
“I give them a lot of credit for out-playing us today,” head coach Tony Bozzella said. “We missed a couple of layups. We missed two wide open threes, if we make those threes. If we make those shots it is a lot different.”
After putting up 20 points against Seton Hall in the last meeting between the two teams on Feb. 26, Creighton’s MC McGrory picked up right where she left off in South Orange, NJ, going 3-for-4 from the floor on her way to seven first quarter points.
The junior went into halftime with 11 points, but did not lose her hot hand as she came back out firing on all cylinders in the second half, finishing with 23 points before fouling out with 4:48 left to go in the game.
The lone bright spot for the Hall was senior transfer Shakeena Richardson, who went 7-for-18 from the floor and 5-for-5 from the charity stripe, good enough for 20 points.
The Pirates tried to close the gap in the second half, cutting the Bluejays’ lead to seven with 8:16 left in the game before Creighton stepped on the gas pedal and extended the lead to 16 with 5:40 to go. The Bluejays would lead by as much as 25 points in the closing minutes.
“We could never get down over the hump with threes,” Bozzella said. “We are looking forward to next Monday night and seeing where we will go in the NCAA Tournament, hopefully.”
The Pirates will now have to await their fate on Selection Monday to see if they will get an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.
Editor's Note: All quotes are courtesy of WSOU.
Kevin Huebler can be reached at kevin.huebler@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @HueblerKevin.
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