When: Wednesday, February 5, 2014, at 7pm Central
Where: Al McGuire Center
Audio/Visual: It's a home game, so that means FREE VIDEO STREAMING. Live stats will be over this way.
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWBB
At long last, Seton Hall finally makes it to the McGuire Center. This game was originally scheduled for Wednesday, January 8th, but due to the first attack of the Polar Vortex sending temperatures plummeting into the negatives, the Pirates were unable to travel to Milwaukee from New Jersey.
Marquette comes into the game after snapping a two game losing streak by pounding Georgetown on Saturday. Arlesia Morse picked up a spot on the Big East's Weekly Honor Roll for her performance last week, largely due to her 20 points in the first half against the Hoyas. Morse seems to be rounding back into the form that had her in the starting lineup for the last two years. Katie Young has been starting in her place this season, but on Saturday, it seemed that Young's struggles on the offensive end have led to Morse getting more playing time. If Morse is going to hit seven of her eight attempts on a regular basis, I can't really fault head coach Terri Mitchell for going for more scoring as opposed to Young's more defense and rebounding oriented game.
Delaying this contest seems to have worked out in Seton Hall's favor. When the game was originally set to be played, the Pirates were 9-4 overall and had lost their first two Big East games. Since then, they've stabilized the ship a bit. I'm not saying anyone's ever been excited about a 4-3 record in a seven game span, but the losses were all to the top three teams in the Big East, St. John's, Creighton, and DePaul, and the Bluejays barely escaped South Orange with a three point win. Fun Fact: Seton Hall may have lost both of their last two games, but they were the last Big East to lose two straight games this season.
In Saturday's home loss to St. John's, the Pirates were without the services of junior forward Bra`Shey Ali. If she's out again tomorrow, it could be a significant loss for SHU. Ali averages a double-double with 10.3 points and a team high 11.1 rebounds and would be a significant piece to throw against the consistent double-double threat of MU star forward Katherine Plouffe. Tabatha Richardson-Smith leads the Pirates in scoring, averaging 18.2 points and providing the only legitimate three point shooting threat. Richardson-Smith is the only Pirate to attempt more than 35 long range shots on the season with 137 attempts, and at 38.7% from distance, she's also the only rotation player shooting over 25% behind the arc.