Sunday marked National Girls and Women in Sports Day in South Orange, and Walsh Gymnasium was jam-packed with celebratory honors and momentous odes to the sporting world’s best female superstars for a critically important Big East matchup with nationally ranked DePaul.
Unfortunately for the Pirates, celebration was not the mantra of the day as they fell in a hard-fought slugfest at home, 86-76.
The team was thoroughly outplayed in the first half by the Blue Demons, and went into the midway break down 10, 50-40. A third-quarter surge found much closer on the scoreboard, and the Pirates even took a one-point lead, but a staunch closing run from DePaul shut the door on any hopes of a Pirate comeback.