Coming off a close loss Friday, Bluejay women’s basketball knocked off Seton Hall 78-66 Sunday afternoon.
This victory avenged a Jan. 17 82-70 loss at Seton Hall for the Bluejays and moved them to 16-9 overall and 8-6 in Big East play.
“I was proud of our bounceback,” head coach Jim Flanery said. “I know we were all hurting the other night and when you play two at home you can’t lose them both. We played a really good basketball game.”
The story of the game was the recovery from Friday night’s 77-70 loss to St. John’s and the team’s 3-point shooting.
A close first half put them up 34-32 heading into the break which Flanery said was a key for the team to ride the rest of the game.
“Playing from a lead was important and the threes we kept making down the stretch — we needed them,” he said.
Under the control of a strong second half, the Jays never lost their halftime lead and remained comfortable in front of their home crowd.
Going 10-for-19 from 3-point range in the second half, the Jays went ahead by as many as 15 points in the final quarter.
Both teams played aggressive throughout, with physicality in the post. The Bluejays also saw full court press play from the Pirates in the final quarter.
“We had to be strong with all of our plays today, whether that was rebounds or with pressure up the court or even first dotches we had to be strong claim our space,” senior forward Jaylyn Agnew said. “We weren’t that team on Friday.”
Agnew continued showing her strong season with 28 points including five from 3-point range.
Junior guard Tatum Rembao was another leader for the Bluejays in both games. Her performances earned her Big East player of the week recognition as she earned 21 points and four assists against St. John’s Friday night and 20 points against the Pirates.
Sophomore forward Gracey Griglione had one of her strongest performances of the semester and put up a season-high 10 points, including two 3-pointers in just 13 minutes of play.
With only four games left on the season the Bluejays will take this momentum into the remainder of the conference play.
In a Jan. 26 rematch, they’ll travel to Indianapolis tonight to face Butler. The Jays lost to the Bulldogs last month 73-67. The road stretch will continue with a game against Xavier Sunday before they return home to close the regular season.
As they look toward the weekend Agnew said the focus needs to be on defensive rebounding and continuing the physicality and grit they played with on Sunday.