With the calendar now reading February, teams are now attempting to separate themselves from the pack nationally as well as in their respective conferences. The Bluejays women’s basketball team was able to gain some separation in the Big East standings with a 72-56 victory over the Seton Hall Pirates. With the Bluejays sitting in second place in the Big East and the Pirates in third place, this was a monumental game for the conference standings.
“This was a big game…they have a fairly favorable schedule going forward,” Head Coach Jim Flanery said. “If they had beaten us, I think they would have felt pretty good about catching up with us [in the conference standings]. This is a really big week for us because of this game…hopefully this will put some separation between us and the teams that are behind us.”
The Bluejays got off to a hot start from deep, as their first nine points of the game came from the three-point line. Despite the hot start from deep, Seton Hall got out to an early 10-9 lead with two minutes remaining in the first quarter. However, this lead did not last long for the Pirates. A three-pointer from Senior Jayme Horan kickstarted an 8-0 run to end the first quarter. The Bluejays held a 17-10 lead at the end of the quarter.
“I feel like when we come into a game, it is hard [to get production],” Senior Jayme Horan said. “Most players have to figure it out first…so we just had to read the defense and be confident in ourselves.”
The Pirates were able to tighten the score during the second quarter. Following strong play inside the paint, Seton Hall got within five points, trailing 25-20 with 3 minutes remaining in the first half. However, the Bluejays were able to pull away once again. This was due in large part to a scoring explosion from Senior Lauren Jensen. In the last three minutes of the half, Jensen scored eight points, including two three-pointers. This helped the Bluejays gain a 38-26 lead at halftime.
Another big part of the first half was an impressive first-half performance from Senior Brooke Littrell. She ended the game with ten points and seven rebounds with eight points and five rebounds coming in the first half.
“I think she has trusted herself a little bit more,” Flanery said. “She’s been more balanced when she is driving in, and if she continues to do that, she is really going to help us down the stretch.”
In the third quarter, the Bluejays were able to gain a large separation. The Bluejays scored 20 points in this quarter. Sixteen of those points came from Jensen and Horan, with each player putting in 8 points and two three-pointers. At the end of this quarter, the Bluejays held a 58-40 lead over the Pirates.
The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth quarter, but the Pirates were never able to get closer than 16 points. Three-pointers were once again the big story in this quarter. The Bluejays hit three from deep in this quarter, with one each coming from Jayme Horan, Morgan Maly, and Allison Heathcock. This gave the Bluejays a total of 16 three-pointers for the game.
This game could truly be described as a team effort with four different players breaking into double digits. Two of these were Jayme Horan and Brooke Littrell, who came off of the bench for this game.
“It feels good to see some shots going in, but honestly, it is because of my teammates,” Horan said. “They’re the ones that are always shooting like that, and it just goes around, so I give huge kudos to them.”
“I think this is a reflection of how good we can be down the stretch,” Flanery said. “I think it is really encouraging that on a night when some of our steady, good players didn’t make shots, we still found a way to win because of what Brooke and Jayme did.”
The Bluejays will travel to Philadelphia to play the Villanova Wildcats on Saturday before returning home to host Georgetown on February 15th.