Women’s basketball wins over Seton Hall

The USF womens basketball team bounced back from last Wednesdays loss to St. Johns with a 67-56 win over Seton Hall on Saturday.

The win over the Pirates (8-17. 3-9) made for the Bulls (17-7, 6-5) sixth win in conference play, pushing them over the .500 mark.

The Bulls played high-intensity defense as they held Seton Hall to only one made field goal during the first 15 minutes of the game.

The use of constant double teams, a full court press and well-contested shots helped USF grab a 30-15 lead heading into halftime.

Several players stepped up for the Bulls, as two players in particular, freshman guard Courtney Williams and junior center Akila McDonald recorded their first double-doubles of the season.

USFs tough defense and poor Seton Hall shooting helped the two grab 21 rebounds collectively.

Along with the performances from McDonald and Williams, came the three-point shooting of junior guard Inga Orekhova that allowed the Bulls to keep their lead for the entire game.

Orekhova finished with 22 points and an impressive five three pointers, all of which were made in the second half of the game.

Orekhova hit back-to-back three pointers to open up a strong second half.

The Bulls held onto their 20-plus point lead for most of the second half until Seton Hall went on an 18-5 run, cutting the deficit to nine with 3:38 remaining in the game.

Fernandez said he was not pleased with his teams play towards the end of the game.

It was disappointing how we defended down the stretch, Fernandez said.

Orekhova staved off the Seton Hall run by answering with five of her 22 points in the final three minutes to seal the game for the Bulls.

In spite of the double-digit victory, Fernandez said the Bulls still have to work on some aspects of their game as they go forward.

Two areas that I was disappointed in were our free throw shooting and our value for the ball, Fernandez said.

USF hopes to fix those areas and use the momentum from this game in their next matchup on Wednesday night at No.10 Louisville.