Women’s Basketball: Aneesah Morrow’s historic night sparked huge second half as DePaul gets its 10th conference win

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Maddy Maes

DePaul forward Aneesah Morrow jumping to shoot the ball in DePaul’s win over Xavier on Dec. 5.

DePaul’s freshman forward Aneesah Morrow’s historic night led the way to the team’s 85-65 win against conference rival Seton Hall. The team is now 18-5 and 10-2 in conference play.

The team had a hot start to the game. Senior guard Sonya Morris came out the gate swinging with a jumpshot to give the team a 2-0 lead. Senior guard Lexi Held, graduate guard Deja Church and Morrow jumped on the scoreboard with three consecutive scoring possessions to help extend the lead 8-6. Church then sank the three point basket to extend the lead 11-8. Following the three-point basket, Held drove down the lane and scored on a scooping left hand layup to extend the lead 13-11.

Morris shot the three-point basket on a transition fast break to extend the lead 16-13 before the first media break. Coming out of the timeout, Morris put the moves on the Seton Hall center, scoring on a fastbreak layup to give the team a 18-16 lead. Next, junior guard Kierra Collier shot the three-point jumpshot to give the team a 21-16 lead. Morrow scored on the next two possessions, helping the Blue Demons on a 7-0 run to extend their lead 25-16. Seton Hall goes on 6-0 run to finish the quarter, with DePaul still on top.

At the end of the first quarter, the Blue Demons were up 25-22.

The team shot 61 percent from the field and 50 percent from the three-point line. Morris led the way with 11 points. Church followed Morris with five points, while Morrow contributed four points.

The team dominated in the fastbreak department, but DePaul’s offense struggled in the second quarter. Morrow did not score the team’s first bucket at the seven and a half minute mark of the quarter. The team also committed seven unforced turnovers, slowing down the team’s offensive production. The defense also struggled to defend in the paint, allowing Seton Hall’s Sidney Cook to score 22 of the team’s 35 points.

But the team found life halfway through the quarter, going on a 9-0 run thanks to Church starting the spark plug with a left-hand fastbreak layup and Morris following suit with a three-point basket of her own to give the team a 32-28 lead. Held’s layup added to the team’s lead. The team was up 34-28 with 4:55 left in the half. At the 3:30 mark, Church scored a jumpshot off the inbounds play to extend their lead 36-29. DePaul then went on a scoring drought before Morrow scored on a jumpshot from the post to give the team a 38-35 lead at the half. The team finished the first half shooting 47 percent from the field and 30 percent from the three-point line.

The second half became the Morrow show, helping DePaul’s offense pick up while their defense intensified. The second half started with a defensive stop that led to a Morris layup, giving the team a 40-35 layup. From this point, Morrow began to heat up offensively. She followed suit with an “And-1” to extend the team’s lead to six, 43-37. Afterwards, her scoring efforts continued with three consecutive rebounds off her own misses before finally scoring a layup.

The next play, she collected the offensive rebound off the sophomore guard Darrione Rogers miss to give the team a 47-39 lead. Seton Hall went on a 6-0 run before Morris hit the three to extend the lead to 50-44. Morrow scored again in the post to extend the lead to 52-46. Morris hits another jumpshot to extend the lead to eight, 54-46. Held threw an assist to Church in the fastbreak to extend the lead to 10, 58-48. Morris hit the jumper to give the Blue Demons a 60-54 lead. Church followed suit with a three-point basket to extend the lead to nine, 63-54. Morrow stole the ball and scored on the fastbreak layup to extend the lead to double digits. The team goes on a 7-0 run to end the third quarter. DePaul finished the third quarter with a 65-54 lead.

Church started the fourth quarter with a layup to give the team a 67-54 lead. Church scores on a mid range jumpshot to give the Blue Demons a 70-59 lead. Off the Morrow offensive rebound, Morris hit the three to extend DePaul’s lead to 12. Collier scored off the give and go with Morrow and Church scores on a layup to contribute to a 10-0 run that gives the team a 19 point lead before sealing the deal with the win. Morrow finished the game with 22 points and 27 rebounds, breaking the Big East record for most rebounds by a player in a game.

Morris finished the game with 26 points. Church had 20 points while Held had nine points.

The Blue Demons next game is Friday at 7:00 p.m. against Creighton.