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Preview: Seton Hall opens up the quarterfinals vs. Creighton

Date: March 6, 2021

By: Ryan Henry

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This week has been huge for the Seton Hall Women’s Basketball Team. They secured the third seed in the Big East Conference tournament with two road wins against Villanova and St. John’s, capping off a five-game winning streak for the Pirates. Preseason polls had the Pirates to finish sixth in the conference, so earning the third seed was huge for Coach Tony Bozzella and his team.

 

The Big East regular season awards were announced this week, and Seton Hall finished with a conference-high three players making the All-Big East First Team in Andra Espinoza-Hunter, Desiree Elmore, and Lauren Park-Lane. Park-Lane also took home the Big East Most Improved Player with season averages of 17.4 points-per-game and 5.6 assists-per-game.

Since the Pirates earned the third seed, they got a bye in the first round of the Big East Tournament and awaited their opponent as they would play the winner of the Creighton/Georgetown game. The Blue Jays beat the Hoyas 56-42, and now the Pirates have a chance to avenge a heartbreaking loss.

 

These two teams only played each other once this season due to COVID-19 back on Feb. 13 at Walsh Gymnasium, and it was classic. The Pirates fell to the Bluejays 77-76 in overtime off a last-second layup by guard Tatum Rembao.

For the Pirates, this game came down to abysmal three-point shooting as they only shot 29% from behind the arc with Espinoza-Hunter and Park-Lane shooting a combined 1-10 from three. Espinoza-Hunter really struggled in this contest as she only scored seven points on 3-17 shooting while clocking a game-high 45 minutes. She was still a force defensively, grabbing 15 rebounds and getting two blocks and steals. Sometimes shots won’t fall, and Feb. 13 was one of the nights for the First Team All-Big East Conference Member.

 

Elmore picked up the slack that night, scoring a game-high 25 points on 11-20 shooting while grabbing 17 rebounds. She also scored the layup in the final 15 seconds to tie the game up and send it to overtime. Park-Lane, despite her shooting woes from behind the arc, still finished with 19 points and nine assists. The Pirates will rely on all three to have huge games as they’ve had this whole season

 

For the Bluejays, they are led by Second Team All-Big East Selection Temi Carda. In her last outing against the Pirates, she struggled as she only scored 12 points on four of 13 shooting. She’s coming into this match with a huge 26-point performance in Creighton’s win against Georgetown, and she’ll look to continue her dominance.

Creighton will be without Tatum Rembao, the hero of the last match against the Pirates. She hasn’t played since the Blue Jays played Georgetown back on Feb. 15 due to injury. Her impact has been missed, but Creighton has been able to win without her, including a road upset against No. 19 ranked DePaul. Sophomore Carly Bachelor has been starting in place of Rembao.

 

Freshman Emma Ronsiek has also been one of the best players for the Bluejays this season, earning Big East All-Freshman Honors averaging 11.2 points-per-game and 4.4 rebounds-per-game. She only scored seven points in 17 minutes in her last outing against the Pirates, so the Blue Jays will be relying on her more offensively this time around.

 

The Pirates have been clicking these last few weeks and have all the momentum entering this game, but this is not a Creighton team they should take lightly. Even though the Blue Jays are down a couple of players, they can hang with anyone in the Big East.

 

Coach Tony Bozzella has done an excellent job this year preparing his team, and I expect nothing different this time around. If the Pirates get the Andra Espinoza-Hunter we’ve seen for most of this season and everyone else does their part, they should win this contest comfortably.

Ryan Henry can be reached at ryan.henry@student.shu.edu.

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

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