[caption id="attachment_16762" align="aligncenter" width="838"]
Freshman Shadeen Samuels boasted a career-high 18 points against LIU Brooklyn in just 13 minutes of action. Photo via SHU Athletics.[/caption]
The Seton Hall women’s basketball team is young but it has also proven to be tough.
This team is resilient, and it has shown in the early going. The Pirates began the season overlooked, picked to finish seventh in the Big East after losing four starters, including WNBA draft pick Shakena Richardson. While things haven’t been perfect this season so far, the, inexperienced team has opened some eyes.
“We’re young, so we have to be resilient. We know that we’re going to be down sometimes, but for us it doesn’t mean anything. We just gotta push back,” senior center Lubirdia Gordon said on Sunday, Dec. 4 after her team’s win over Wake Forest.
The game was a prime example as to how much this team does not quit and battles until the end.
The Pirates came out of the gate Sunday ice cold, finding themselves in a seemingly insurmountable 18-2 hole in the first quarter. Suddenly, with the tip of a light switch, the team began to mount a comeback. Led by 19 points from sophomore LaTecia Smith and a double-double from Gordon, the Pirates came back to beat the Demon Deacons, 70-63.
This wasn’t the first comeback the Pirates had completed this season. In the second game of the year, the young team faced their first road test of the new campaign against Marist. The Pirates trailed by 15 at the half in what seemed destined to be their first loss. However, things changed in the third quarter, as the Pirates outscored the Red Foxes 31-8 in en route to a 13-point victory.
The Pirates showed that same fight against Wake Forrest. Not only did the Pirates erase a 16-point hole, they were able to do it on the heels of losing three of their previous four games by a combined 87 points.
“I think we’re just sick and tired of getting our rear end kicked for the last three or four games,” head coach Tony Bozzella said after the win.
The resiliency shown on the court is also evident in the mindset of the players, such as Smith, who spoke about the message going into Sunday afternoon’s game after a stretch of tough games.
“Before the game, we had a long talk with our coach and he told us a story about being positive when things are not going good. I think that was what we did today,” Smith said.
That resounding positive message evidently carried into the Pirates’ matchup on Wednesday, as the Hall toppled LIU Brooklyn, 77-59.
Matt Ambrose can be reached at matthew.ambrose1@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @mambrose97.
Comments
