University of Georgia
Seton Hall
Lady Bulldogs Fall To Seton Hall
December 28, 2014 | Women's Basketball
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. --- No. 14 Georgia's undefeated season came to an end at 12-0 on Sunday afternoon as Seton Hall upset the Lady Bulldogs, 70-51.
Georgia (12-1) trailed most of the first half but rallied to take a 41-29 lead with 12:47 remaining. The Lady Bulldogs failed on two chances to add to that margin before Seton Hall (12-1) exploded on a 25-2 run to seal the victory.
"Seton Hall beat us the way they've beaten everyone," head coach Andy Landers said. "They shot the 3-ball, they penetrated and they got to the line. We didn't do a good job of stopping any of those. We knew they would be hard to guard, but we continually had breakdowns that put us in bad positions."
Tiffany Jones started the decisive surge with a layup at the 11:45 mark, and Tabatha Richardson-Smith's 3-pointer capped the run that put the Pirates up 64-43 with 5:55 left.
Richardson-Smith finished with a game-high 25 points, while Ke-Deidre Simmons added 17 for Seton Hall.
Tiaria Griffin led four Lady Bulldogs with double-digit stats. Griffin scored 16 points, Merritt Hempe added 13 and Pachis Roberts chipped in 11. Krista Donald grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.
After trailing 33-25 at halftime, Georgia quickly scored the first five points of the second stanza. The Lady Bulldogs tied the game three times before going up by two on a Mackenzie Engram layup.
Shacobia Barbee and Engram missed shots that could have pushed the margin further before the Pirates seized control en route to their 11th straight win and 13th consecutive home victory dating back to last season.
The Lady Bulldogs started quickly, scoring the game's first four points on steals and layups in the opening 57 seconds.
Seton Hall bounced back and built a pair of five-point leads before Erika Ford capped a 7-2 run that tied the game at 16-16 with 5:59 left in the half.
Georgia held Richardson-Smith scoreless to that point, but she canned back-to-back threes from the right wing to ignite a 13-3 surge over the ensuing 3:08 that put the Pirates up 29-19.
Pachis Roberts scored Georgia's final six points of the half to help close the gap to 33-25 at the intermission.
Simmons led all scorers at the break with 15 points, largely due to connecting on 9-of-9 trips to the line. Simmons scored Seton Hall's last nine points of the period, seven of those coming at the charity stripe.
Georgia will return to action on Friday when the Lady Bulldogs open SEC action at Mississippi State at 4:00 p.m. ET. Next Sunday, the Lady Bulldogs will host Alabama in their SEC home opener at 1 p.m. at Stegeman Coliseum.
Single-game reserved seat tickets for Lady Bulldog games are $5 for adults and $3 for children. UGA students, faculty and staff are admitted to all Lady Bulldog games free of charge with a valid UGA Card. Faculty and staff should pick up tickets at the Coliseum box office. Students are admitted to the arena via the entrance to the left of the box office by showing their UGA Card.
Single-game tickets are on sale via georgiadogs.com, by calling 877-542-1231 or in person at the UGA Ticket Office in the Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall from 8:30-4:30 on weekdays. In addition, single-game tickets go on sale at the Stegeman Coliseum box office (closest to Sanford Drive) beginning 60 minutes before tip-off of every home game.
.png&width=84&height=84&quality=100&type=webp)
