Lady Raiders Fall To Seton Hall 74-73 In WNIT Semifinals

/in , /by

Kseniya Malashka. Photo: Courtesy of MT Athletics

The Lady Raiders’ strong second half wasn’t enough to overtake Seton Hall whose last second bucket secured the 74-73 win over MTSU on Thursday night (March 31).

“We never quit,” head coach Rick Insell said in a postgame press conference. “They made some plays at the end. They executed two or three times in a row and we had a couple of breakdowns. I’m very proud of our young ladies. I hate it for our fans, our school, and our team. They did everything they could do to win this game.”

The Pirates took a strong early lead over MTSU at the Murphy Center 38-26 going into halftime. Hall was led by Sidney Cooks who scored 28 points and rebounded seven. But the Lady Raiders came out of halftime with a vengeance.

MTSU scored 24 points in the third quarter and 23 points in the fourth quarter, outscoring Seton Hall 47-36. The Lady Raiders were led by Kseniya Malashka who dropped 25 points and rebounded nine on 28 minutes played. Dor Saar scored 19 points in an attempt to pull off the comeback victory.

In the final quarter, MTSU went on an 11-0 run to take the lead. After some back-and-fourth play, the Lady Raiders found themselves up four with 23 seconds to play. But a hard fought drive, layup and-1 from the Pirates, and a tie-up on the next possession gave Seton Hall the ball with 16 seconds to go. Cooks then scored on a heavily contested shot, giving Hall the lead with 2.4 seconds left.

Malashka was the one to take the final shot to win the game, but fell short, with the Pirates punching their ticket to the WNIT Finals.

“I thought she got a body down low, and they didn’t make a call,” Insell added. “She went in and was able to get the ball up, but I still think there was too stuff much going on underneath. I’m still proud of [Malashka], she did exactly what we wanted to do.”

The Lady Raiders finish their season 27-8 with a home record of 16-1. Their historic WNIT may have come to an end but not before picking up wins against Wofford, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt and Toledo.

Steven Boero
Latest posts by Steven Boero (see all)