Seton Hall’s women’s basketball squad team played well against UConn, at least compared to their last head-to-head outing, in a 91-49 defeat.
The Pirates scored the game’s first five points and trailed 22-20 near the midway point of the second quarter before the Huskies made their first of two game-breaking runs.
UConn closed the first half on a 19-6 run to take a 41-26 lead to the locker room. After the Pirates traded blows with the 11-time national champions for the first five minutes of the second half, the Huskies slammed the door with a 20-3 quarter-ending run.
Paige Bueckers bade farewell to Walsh Gymnasium with 23 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and two steals, despite only playing three quarters.
“The best thing she does is plays defense and rebounds,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said of Bueckers.
Seton Hall legacy Aubrey Griffin finished with 15 points, most of which came in the fourth quarter.“If she played every game at Walsh, she’d be first, second, and third team All-American,” Auriemma said of Griffin.
The Pirates held tough for a while, with three players finishing in double figures, including Yaya Lops with a team-leading 15 points.
“I thought we played well [but] they just wore us out in the second half,” Pirate head coach Tony Bozzella said.
The Huskies committed seven of the game’s first eight fouls, but the Pirates committed the next eight. One could argue that, the way it looked, the officials may have been building up credit in sending UConn to the line more later.
“I thought we should’ve been to the foul line more,” Bozzella said.
However, Bozzella did not rest on his team’s laurels, as he called UConn “the best team in the country when they play this way,” and did acknowledge Savannah Catalon’s recent flu bout, among other team ailments, may have been a small factor when it came to the outcome.
“I do think we’re one of the top 68 teams in the country,” Bozzella said of his team’s NCAA Tournament chances.
The Pirates will play at St. John’s on Sunday afternoon.