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Preview: Seton Hall Faces St. John's in Important Home Showdown

Date: January 19, 2022

By: Liam Plate

Members of the Seton Hall women's basketball huddle during a home game.

Matt Kipp/Seton Hall Athletics

After a two-game road trip, the Seton Hall women’s basketball team (7-7 overall, 2-4 conference) returns home to play their first home game since Jan. 7. Their opponent will be the St. John’s Red Storm (5-10 overall, 1-4 conference).

This will be the two teams’ second matchup of the season, and it will prove to be an exhilarating game as it always is between these two heated rivals.

The Pirates are coming off a 20-point victory over the Providence Friars this past Sunday. In that game, Lauren Park-Lane dropped 30 points on 10/22 shooting from the field with four of those being from behind the three-point line.

In addition to Park-Lane having a big game, Andra Espinoza-Hunter had a monumental game. While Espinoza-Hunter only notched 11 points in the game, her 11th was her 1,000th career point. Espinoza-Hunter has scored 1,000 points during her career at three different schools including UConn, Mississippi State, and Seton Hall.

On the St. John’s side, they also played on Sunday and are coming off a six-point loss to the Creighton Bluejays in Omaha, Neb. The Johnnies won the first two quarters over Creighton, but it was a strong second half from the Bluejays that led to them getting the close victory at home.

St. John’s had a strong offensive outing from their top three players. Leilani Correa scored 26 points, Kadaja Bailey put up 22 points and Danielle Patterson dropped 15 points as well. In addition to these high scorers, the Red Storm were a perfect 6/6 from the free throw line.

These two teams played each other back on Dec. 5, which resulted in a 75-68 loss for the Pirates. St. John’s used a 7-0 run at the end of the first quarter to give themselves an eight-point lead heading into the second quarter, which made the difference in the end.

This one was another big game for Park-Lane, as she scored a game-high 23 points along with Mya Bembry, who notched her first career double-double this day with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

For the Red Storm, they had four players score in double digits with some of them scoring above their averages. Correa led the way with 24 points with Bailey following right behind her with 23 points.

One key thing about this game is that this was Espinoza-Hunter’s first game back after serving a suspension for their game the Friday night before against UConn and her first time playing a game since their Nov. 26 game versus Toledo.

So, this time Espinoza-Hunter will be in the groove of playing at game speed, and I think that can make the difference down the stretch this time, especially coming off the high of scoring her 1,000th point.

Seton Hall should get the win in this one against the Johnnies, but there are a few keys. The bench needs to step up and help take some of the scoring load off the starters. Even if the bench doesn’t score a lot of points and if they’re able to make an impact on the game in some way, that will be a difference maker down the stretch.

In the last matchup, St. John’s shot 58.9% from the field, which cannot happen this time around if the Pirates want to win. So, another key is going to be playing aggressive defense all around and applying the pressure.

The Pirates are very good at running a full-court press, and this is something we could see in this game to help make the Johnnies struggle bringing the ball up the floor.

It is sure to be an intense matchup at the Walsh Gymnasium tonight. Make sure to tune in to the flagship station for Seton Hall women’s basketball, 89.5 FM WSOU. Jorie Mickens and Jonathan Heite will be on the call with tip-off scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and pre-game coverage starting at 6:30 p.m.

Liam Plate can be reached at liam.plate@student.shu.edu. 

Posted in: Game Previews, Sports, Women's Basketball

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