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Preview: Seton Hall Travels to No. 9 UConn for Big East Rematch

Date: January 20, 2022

By: Joe Matthews

Seton Hall's Andra Espinoza-Hunter looks to score on offense against the St. John's Red Storm at home.

Kayla Fonseca/WSOU Sports

This Friday, the Seton Hall women’s basketball team (8-7, 3-4 conference) will travel to Connecticut to take on the No. 9 UConn Huskies (9-4, 4-0 conference).

The Pirates are coming off of two huge victories. Back on Jan. 16, they took down the Providence Friars on the road 62-42, and this past Wednesday night, they defeated St. John’s at home, 84-79.

The biggest factor for the Pirates’ recent success has been without a doubt, Lauren Park-Lane. She has built herself a case for Big East Player of the Week, and even a potential case for Big East Player of the Year? How, you may ask? Well just look at the stat-sheet.

Park-Lane dropped a then season-high 30 points against Providence, as well as tallying five assists, four rebounds, and four steals.

In the St. John’s rematch, she had 31 points, a new season high, and only one point away from her career high. She also had eight assists, and with that performance against St. John’s, Park-Lane became the first player in Seton Hall women’s basketball history to score 30 points in back-to-back games.

Seton Hall's Lauren Park-Lane looks to score on offense during a home game vs. the St. John's Red Storm.

Kayla Fonseca/WSOU Sports

She now sits third in the conference in scoring with 18.1 points-per-game, fourth in steals-per-game with 1.7, and leads the conference in assists-per-game with 6.9. A statement game against the No. 9 Huskies, and Park-Lane could all but wrap up some nice awards for herself early in conference play.

Despite Park-Lane’s play, the Pirates have had some great play out of some other players recently, namely Andra Espinoza-Hunter. She dropped 25 points of her own in that last affair against the Red Storm, combining for a whopping 56 with Park-Lane.

In an interview prior to the game against St. John’s with WSOU Sports’ Jorie Mickens, head coach Tony Bozzella said that “we need a 25–30-point effort out of [Andra], and she’s capable of doing it."

Espinoza-Hunter certainly fulfilled her coach’s ask on Wednesday, and it could serve as good momentum moving forward into the matchup against UConn, where the Pirates and Bozzella will certainly be asking the same of her.

On the UConn side, they’re in the midst of traversing through one of the tougher seasons in recent program history. They head into this matchup coming off of being upset by unranked Oregon, 72-59. The Huskies have been playing short-handed as of late, as they remain without star Paige Bueckers, who is sidelined with an ankle injury.

In that last matchup against Oregon, the Huskies were also without Christyn Williams, who was ruled inactive due to COVID-19 protocols. UConn coach Geno Auriemma has stated that Williams will still be out for UConn’s games this weekend, meaning she will be inactive for this matchup against the Pirates. The Huskies will also be without star freshman Azzi Fudd due to injury.

With a short-handed UConn squad and a red-hot Pirates team squaring off against one another, a close an exciting game is certainly a possibility. The Pirates played the Huskies tough earlier in the season, and now they’ll get a second chance to pull off a big upset to potentially vault them into the national spotlight.

Be sure to tune in to 89.5 FM WSOU for coverage of this Big East showdown. Christian Gardner and Heaven Hill will be on the call from Storrs, Conn.

Joe Matthews is an Assistant Sports Director for WSOU Sports and can be reached at joseph.matthews@student.shu.edu.

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

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