By Jake Nussbaum, Special to The Chronicle
Junior forward Shante Evans displayed her knack for overpowering and outrunning defenders in Thursday night’s win over Seton Hall: crashing through the low post and displaying her ability to finish around the hoop.
The Hofstra women’s basketball team defeated Seton Hall, 94-74, at the Mack Sports Complex following an impressive performance by Evans and senior guard Nicole Capurso.
Hofstra commanded an early lead and never relinquished it as the game went on. The Pride’s fast paced offense hit seven of sixteen three pointers while Seton Hall only sunk three of twelve.
“It was a really good team win tonight against a Big East foe,” said head coach Krista Kilburn-Steveskey. “I thought we did a good job from the start to set the tone.”
In 17 minutes, Evans recorded 14 points where she exhibited not only her play in the low post, but her speed and ability to dribble, going coast to coast twice through the Seton Hall full court press.
“When I first started playing basketball the first thing I could do well was dribble,” said Evans. “When I first started going up the court no one came at me so I just took it.”
Capurso led the Pride with 20, hitting two of her first three pointers, yet Hofstra’s early lead was due to sophomore guard Katelyn Loper’s first half performance in which she hit four of her first five field goals and three of her first four three-point attempts, helping solidify an early lead.
“Our defense in the beginning did a good job of setting the tempo then it allowed us to attack and score and gain confidence on the offensive end,” said Kilburn-Steveskey.
Seton Hall senior guard Jasmine Crew led the team with 25 points, going 8-19 from the field. Despite her first half scoring, Crew turned the ball over five times in the game, four of those coming in the first half.
Seton Hall made a few minor runs in the second half due to some turnover riddled play from Hofstra, yet the Pride was able to withstand their comeback attempts and quickly respond with points of its own.
“We still can play better on defense down the stretch,” said Kilburn-Steveskey. “The last four or five minutes of the game we gave up a bit too much, and we had some sloppy play towards the end.”
Seton Hall’s transition offense struggled for most of the game as junior forward Deven Green provided Hofstra with strong post defense and energy off the bench. Green recorded a double-double with 13 points and collecting ten rebounds. Kilburn-Steveskey only had one word to describe her performance: “phenomenal”.
“We ended up better on the boards tonight which was a big goal we had at halftime,” said Kilburn-Steveskey. “We needed to be plus ten and we accomplished that goal so that was a big personal feat for us.”
This was the third time this year that Hofstra has scored ninety or more points, improving its record to 5-1 on the season, yet Kilburn-Steveskey made sure it was clear that they are not satisfied yet.
“We are not too comfortable right now. It’s one hundred percent about us, and we take everything extremely seriously, but we can definitely be happy about doing some good things,” said Kilburn-Steveskey.
