Seton Hall women’s basketball could not find an offensive rhythm Thursday night at Walsh Gymnasium, falling to the Villanova Wildcats (23-6, 16-4 BIG EAST), 82-52.
With the loss, the Pirates have fallen to a record of 18-10 on the season and 12-7 in the BIG EAST as injuries continue to pile up.
With several Pirates already out with injuries, SHU could now possibly be losing a fifth player out of their rotation. In her first ever start, freshman forward Natalia Hall-Rosa sustained a hand injury at the 3:31 mark of the fourth quarter and did not return to the game.
After the game, head coach Anthony Bozzella said he has no idea on the status of Hall-Rosa as she heads to get x-rays on her hand.
The Pirates are now missing four of their guards in Jada Eads, Ari Woodard, Shailyn Pinkey, Ja’Kahla Craft, and now forward Hall-Rosa.
“I just look out there and this is not the team that we put together,” Bozzella said. “This is a shell of it right now.”
The Pirates opened the game strong, taking a 10-5 lead halfway through the first quarter at the 5:46 mark. Villanova fought back as the quarter came to a close with SHU keeping it within five points, the first quarter ending with a score of 21-16 in favor of the Wildcats.
SHU was able to beat Villanova off the dribble multiple times in the first half, scoring on their man-to-man defense by getting the paint for layups. Reigning BIG EAST Freshman of the Week Zahara Bishop was able to take advantage of the Wildcats’ defense by getting to the rim for a layup with 8:46 left in the second quarter to make it 26-18.
Even with that advantage, SHU could not come away with points consistently on some of those layup attempts. The Pirates were then outscored 21-6 in the second quarter, while shooting just 1-for-7 (14.3%) from the field and 0-for-3 (0%) from the 3-point line.
The Wildcats tightened up their defense with their height and length, which made it tough for SHU to get clean 3-point and midrange shots. That opportunistic Wildcats defense forced 22 turnovers, 14 steals, and outscored SHU 31-10 on points from turnovers. The Pirates shot 18-50 (36%) from the field and 4-17 (23.5%) from the 3-point line.
Unfortunately, SHU could not make those adjustments on either side of the ball. The Pirates played man-to-man defense as well, but could not overcome the off-ball screens set by the Wildcats.
Their lack of defensive success allowed Villanova to get multiple open 3-pointers, with the Wildcats going 12-for-32 (37.5%) on their 3-point attempts overall.
Although SHU suffered a blowout loss at home, Bishop is someone to be optimistic about. The freshman has continued to make an impact whenever she is put on the court.
Bishop played hard and hustled on both ends of the floor in all 28 of her minutes played tonight. The freshman scored a team-high 19 points going 7-13 (52.8%) from the field while also grabbing five rebounds.
Junior guard Savannah Catalon also tacked on an additional 14 points and five rebounds, as the Pirates suffered a tough loss in their final home game of the regular season.
SHU is now 4-5 in their last nine games, decreasing their chances for an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament. With Hall-Rosa’s injury, Bozzella must now make another change to his starting lineup ahead of the Pirates' final regular season game on March 1, when they face the Butler Bulldogs (11-18, 5-14 BIG EAST) at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Jayden Bracket is a writer for The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at jayden.bracket@student.shu.edu.
