FORDHAM

LOCATION
Bronx, NY

CONFERENCE
Atlantic 10

LAST SEASON
13-20 (.394)

CONFERENCE RECORD
6-12 (t-10th)

STARTERS RETURNING/LOST
3/2

NICKNAME
Rams

COLORS
Maroon & White

HOMECOURT
Rose Hill Gym (3,200)

OFFICIAL WEBSITE
Fordhamsports.com

COACH
Keith Urgo (Fairfield ’02)

RECORD AT SCHOOL
38-28 (2 years)

CAREER RECORD
38-28 (2 years)

ASSISTANTS
Tray Woodall (Pittsburgh ’13)
Ronald Ramon (Pittsburgh ’08)
Henry Lowe (Villanova ’16)

WINS (LAST 5 YRS.)
9-2-16-25-13

KENPOM RATING (LAST 5 YRS.)
245-310-173-137-188

2023-24 FINISH
Lost in A-10 second round.

All 10 Pirates played at least five minutes and scored at least three points.
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – Graduate student Faith Masonius (Spring Lake, N.J.) had a career-high 23 points as the Seton Hall women's basketball team routed Wagner, 84-40, in the season-opener Thursday in Walsh Gym.

The Hall trailed Wagner, 14-13, with 4:24 left in the first quarter, but outscored them, 71-26, the rest of the way. The suffocating Seton Hall defense forced 26 turnovers and held the Seahawks to just 33.3% shooting from the floor.

Playing in her first regular season game in a Seton Hall uniform, Masonius filled the box score with 23 points, six rebounds, three steals and four assists, one of which was a high-light reel, behind-the-back dime to Kaydan Lawson (Cleveland, Ohio).

Graduate student Yaya Lops (Stamford, Conn.) finished with 15 points, a new high for her Seton Hall career, to go with six rebounds. Amari Wright (Jacksonville, Fla.) nearly had a double-double, finishing with nine points, 10 assists, only one turnover and four steals.

THE STORY:
After a closer-than-expected first quarter, the Pirates put the pedal to the metal in the second quarter. Wagner didn't score until the 4:31 mark as The Hall opened the quarter with a 17-0 run. The run extended to 21-1 before the Seahawks finally connected on their first field goal of the quarter. In all, the Pirates shot 65 percent in the second quarter and outscored Wagner, 28-to-6, to take a 50-22 lead into halftime.

Seton Hall started the second half fast as well. Masonius found Lops for a layup to cap a 9-0 Pirates run to start the third quarter and extend their lead to 59-22 with 6:28 remaining in the quarter.

With 7:28 left in the game, a Lops layup gave The Hall its largest lead of the game, 78-32.

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THE NUMBERS:

• Seton Hall was 35-for-64 (54.7%) from the floor for the game, while Wagner was 16-for-48 (33.3%). Both teams were exactly 7-for-23 (30.4%) from three-point range.
• Masonius had a career-high 23 points on 11-for-17 shooting to go with six rebounds, four assists and three steals.
• The Hall out-rebounded Wagner, 38-to-25, which included a 13-to-8 edge on the offensive glass and an 18-to-4 advantage in second-chance points.
• Lops had 15 points and six rebounds.
• Seton Hall was 7-for-8 (87.5%) from the free-throw line, while Wagner was 1-for-4 (25.0%).
• Wright had nine points, 10 assists, four steals, four rebounds and only one turnover.
• Seton Hall forced 26 turnovers, while the Seahawks forced 15. The Hall had a 30-to-8 advantage in points-off-turnovers.
• The Pirates dominated Wagner, 50-to-12, on points in the paint.

THE NOTES:

• Seton Hall improves to 1-0 on the young season, while Wagner drops to 1-1.
• The Pirates have now won 14 straight season-openers, which includes all 12 with head coach Anthony Bozzella at the helm.
• The Hall is now 11-2 all-time against Wagner and has won the last seven games in the series.
• The Pirates improve to 127-49 in Walsh Gym during the Bozzella era. Furthermore, the Pirates are now 65-12 against non-conference opponents at home.
• Five newcomers made their Seton Hall debuts on Thursday: Masonius, Lawson, Nicole Melious (Staten Island, N.Y.), Savanna Jones (Eden Prairie, Minn.) and Messiah Hunter (Hopewell, Va.).
• After spending her entire freshman year rehabbing an injury, Sydnee Eggleton (Thomaston, Conn.) scored her first career points on her first career shot… a three-pointer.
• All 10 Pirates played at least five minutes and scored at least three points.
• It's Seton Hall's largest victory in a season-opener since last time it met Wagner on opening day, a 95-40 victory on Nov. 6, 2018.
• With four steals tonight, Wright moved into sole possession of 18th place on Seton Hall's career list with 158.

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UP NEXT:
Seton Hall will return to action on Tuesday, Nov. 12 when it hosts local non-conference rival Fordham. Tip-time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. The game will be streamed live by the Pirate Sports Network and available for FloSports subscribers.

Men's NCAA D 1 basketball

• Mississippi University For Women
  at
• Mississippi Valley State
  

Myron Medcalf, ESPN Staff Writer

After a home loss to a Columbia team that had won just seven Ivy League games over the past three seasons, Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said he would have to watch the film to understand what went wrong.

The Lions' 90-80 victory Wednesday night at Villanova's Finneran Pavilion was their first against a Big East opponent since 2012. Neptune, meanwhile, suffered his second consecutive loss to an Ivy team, after Villanova fell 76-72 at Penn last year.

Neptune, who enters a crucial season after failing to reach the NCAA tournament in his first two campaigns leading the Wildcats, suffered his sixth loss to a team that entered the game with a sub-100 ranking on KenPom.

"If we had won that game, we would still have to get a lot better," he said. "We're just not where we need to be right now. We've got to go back, watch this film, learn from it and move onto the next game and get better."

Columbia, picked to finish fifth in the Ivy League preseason poll, entered the game as 17.5-point underdogs on ESPN BET. Guard Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa had a team-high 22 points for the Lions, who connected on 53.7% of their field goal attempts (29-of-54) and 92.3% of their free throw tries (24-of-26).

Columbia (2-0) never has had a winning season under coach Jim Engles, who was hired in 2016.

"I don't think offense was the issue," Neptune said. "We shot 45% [overall]. ... I thought we just couldn't get stops. And I think we turned the ball over. And we just have to get better defensively. They scored 90 points. It's going to be tough when teams score 90 points against you."

In 2022, Jay Wright abruptly retired after winning a pair of national championships with the Wildcats, whom he turned into one of the most respected programs in America. Villanova then hired Neptune, a former assistant under Wright, to lead the program after one year as Fordham's head coach.

Neptune is now 35-34 at Villanova, which was ranked 31st on KenPom entering Wednesday's game. With the return of star Eric Dixon (33 points versus Columbia), the Wildcats were projected to finish seventh in the Big East preseason poll and expected to compete for a first NCAA tournament appearance under Neptune. While both remain possible, Neptune said his team has serious challenges to address before it hosts NJIT on Friday.

"They just executed us ... outexecuted us, I should say, offensively," Neptune said of the Lions.

"It is what it is. We're human beings. You don't want to come in and lose. Everybody wants to win. So, we've got a little bit to think about that and accept the fact that it happened. And now we've got to move on from it. We've got to go and get ready for the next game. We've got to get better."