February 26th, 2016: Creighton at Seton Hall

Just the Facts, Ma'am: A 15-0 second quarter run was the deciding factor in Seton Hall's 77-71 win over Creighton. Tabatha Richardson-Smith notched 22 points and 13 rebounds for the Hall, with Tiffany Jones just missing the double-double (13 points, nine rebounds). MC McGrory led Creighton with 20 points.

For lots of blue, bus adventures, perhaps being in the wrong place at the right time, three-pointers, wheels within wheel plays, late-night travels, and crucial bench three-pointers, join your intrepid and tumbling blogger after the jump.


Stop me if you've heard this one before: since I had the day off anyway, I figured I might as well pull the day-night double-header and head over to Seton Hall for my last regular-season trip to Walsh Gymnasium.

Important life lessons learned: do not experiment with new bus-based routes into New Jersey on a Friday afternoon. Such traffic. Much confuse.

Creighton's bright blue is so similar to Seton Hall's bright blue that I accidentally helped a pair of Creighton fans.

Seton Hall may have done something very clever, or it's a total coincidence. This is the first home game after Tabatha Richardson-Smith broke the career scoring record set by Geraldine Saintilus way back in the day. One of the guys from the color guard today had a name tag that said Saintilus...

Briana Rollerson has big hair. This isn't actually relevant to anything, but it's an observation.

"Mic check one, two- that sounds great."

Tiffany Jones and Tabatha Richardson-Smith seem to be having an impromptu dance-off. Worrrrrrrk.

For heaven's sake, Tab, don't crash the opposing line. That's just rude.

Yeah, okay, if that's a knee injury for Taylor Byrne, I'm Sue Bird. She's wincing at the sound of the band, and they're not bad. They are, in fact, doing a rousing version of "Evil Ways". (Poor Grumpy Byrne.)

At halftime, Seton Hall is up 40-28, after dueling runs in the first quarter led to a 15-all deadlock and a big Seton Hall second half push.

These little kids in the biddy game can really score. Someone even had a boss blocked shot.

This shouldn't have been as close as it was, but Creighton can shoot, and if their picks are working, and their fakeouts are working, they can get on a hot streak and make games entirely too interesting.

Not that the anthem singer was overdoing his melisma, but Shakena Richardson was mocking him after he was done. Nice voice, but badly trained.

Tessa Leytem sneaked around behind the full-court pressure for a pretty sweet lay-up (it was similar to a play from the morning game, where Brianna Frias of Providence, fresh off the bench, went picking cherries in her frontcourt). Myah Mellman got a few minutes in the first half and even less in the second half. Given that I had to check the play-by-play to confirm that she played in both halves, she didn't exactly leave much of an impression. Lauren Works lives up to her last name- she made plays happen on the offensive boards. She was aggressive defensively, too. Like many a Bluejay, she has a nice outside stroke. Flanery went to Olivia Elger late in both halves, most likely just to eat up minutes.

Brianna Rollerson brings an inside presence that changes the way Creighton plays on offense. They didn't use her a lot, but she was enough of a threat that the defense had to respect her. In her brief shift, Kylie Brown looked a little like a deer in the headlights- there was one sequence fairly early in the game where she had a good-looking shot, but hesitated far too long. Ali Greene saw some time in the second half, to bring a little height and a fresh set of fouls. I think she can be a useful part in their system, given time- those three-point shooters need screeners, and she seems like she could be a good one for them.

Bailey Norby was an excellent screener- she set two picks early on that busted shooters open for threes. In the second half, she became a three-point shooter herself. Her shot looks awkward, but it goes in. Audrey Faber still looks a little like she's finding her way, but when she does, she's going to be pretty darn good. She put up a monster block on Aleesha Powell.

I really like the energy that Jade Owens plays with. She took a lot of shots, but it seemed like the ones she hit came at critical times for the Bluejays. And if she wasn't doing that, she was making the big steal, or a nifty defensive play. She seems very much in command of herself and her team, and that's a neat thing to see from a sophomore. MC McGrory plays hard, and I think she can get a little too easily frustrated sometimes- her play got much more physical in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter. She had a martial-arts style takedown of (I think) Tab that would have impressed a karateka. Sydney Lamberty needs a moment to get that shot off, but when it does, it's super fast. If she has space, it's going up. She was able to use her height advantage well against the small Seton Hall guards.

There was one epic fail near the end of the game that Jim Flanery is still probably screaming at his team about. With 47 seconds left, Seton Hall had the ball and a four-point lead. Creighton pressured, but didn't foul- despite Flanery yelling at them to do so repeatedly. SHU was able to work the clock down until Shakena dropped off a sweet little pass to Tiffany Jones wide open at the basket. I understand McGrory and Works backing off, since they both had four fouls, but Leytem and Owens both had fouls available, and it would have extended the game (and since the 9:15 didn’t come until 9:45 or so, I would have been okay with that). You have to know time and score.

Jordan Molyneaux saw a little bit of time in the second half when both Tiffany Jones and Lubirdia Gordon got into foul trouble. She did nothing of note. Claire Lundberg showed fight, but more importantly, her ability to hit threes countered the Creighton run in the second quarter and got Seton Hall back on track, and she made a game-saving play after the Faber block with a block of her own. Martha Kuderer held her own a little bit, but didn't get involved in any of the big plays.

Jordan Mosley was also part of the second quarter, three-fueled, pushback that Seton Hall used to give themselves a cushion. She's really done a lot of heady stuff in this season, and I'm going to miss her (and I didn't think I'd miss her as a player, just as a person, though that sounds awfully calculating). LaTecia Smith is working on her clock awareness (and she's ahead of Creighton on that score). She put up some acrobatic shots, some going in, some not. She used her speed well to jump the passing lanes.

Shakena Richardson looks so right with the ball in her hand, coming up the court, controlling the dribble and controlling the game. It's where she seems to belong. She had some pretty passes, but she left a lot of her shots short, or put them up at weird angles. Aleesha Powell's speed was on show- she played the game at a different pace from anyone else out there. She takes so much contact that it scares me sometimes, but she gets right back up again. Tabatha Richardson-Smith had a couple of WTF moments, but this is part of the Tab Experience, so it's to be expected she'll chuck a three or two from, like, Rahway, or throw up a shot in the lane from an unreasonable angle. She rebounded really well, sometimes even muscling her teammates out of the way. When she decides she's going to take control of a game, watch out- and that goes for both the opponent and for her team.

Tiffany Jones looks like she's still in the slump, but she's come out of it enough to know she has to fight her way out. Her long shots aren't falling, but she's making plays at the rim and keeping balls alive. I like to see that out of her- sometimes post players get so distracted by outside jumpers that they forget they have an advantage on the inside. Lubirdia Gordon gt called for a couple of weak fouls, and I think that got into her head a little bit; she was barking at the refs by the fourth one. I really like her knack for turning broken plays into something, though.

The Pirates were very loose before the game. Maybe too loose. I think they saw that this final weekend was against the bottom of the pack and got too comfortable. Creighton's not a team you can do that against. Creighton's streaky, and you can live by the three at any given time.

The refs started calling the game tighter and tighter as time went on, and it started to grate on everyone in the building. Coach Bozzella's face was red for much of the night. Flanery got T'd. Tab needed a cooldown talk from Aleesha (at least, that's what it looked like Aleesha was doing). People get upset when you start calling touch fouls or cheap jump balls. And Bryan Brunette has a very annoying smirk.

First time I've ever seen the ball get stuck on a shooting contest. There should be a special prize for that, but that would be akin to a prop bet, and that would be bad.

Keep it together, Hall. SHU's emotion fuels them, but sometimes I think it might be too much.

Not that I was waiting for the bus back to Newark-Penn Station for a while, but Creighton's bus beat it down South Orange Avenue.

Next up: FEELS I CANNOT SHARE because Aliyyah and Danaejah will be hitting me right in the feels.