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Preview: Seton Hall travels to Queens for a resume-builder game vs. St. John's

Date: February 28, 2021

By: Justin Nicosia

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The Seton Hall women’s basketball team (13-6, 11-5, Big East) will travel to Queens, N.Y. Monday to face the St. John’s Red Storm (7-13, 4-11 Big East) in a crucial finale to the regular season. The game, which tips off at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, will be televised on FS1 and broadcast here on 89.5 FM WSOU.

 

Seton Hall heads into Monday fourth in the Big East but can take the third seed in next weekend’s conference tournament with a victory and a Butler upset over No. 25 DePaul. Otherwise, the Pirates will be set to take on Villanova in the conference quarterfinals on Saturday. The two teams split the season series.

 

This game is also important for Seton Hall’s tournament aspirations. They currently sit firmly on the bubble in Charlie Creme’s latest bracketology, as one of his next four out, and a loss here would certainly be devastating for their at-large hopes. The Pirates have been playing well recently, winning four in a row, with scoring coming from a variety of sources in that stretch.

In those four games, three different Pirates, Desiree Elmore, Andra Espinoza-Hunter, and Lauren Park-Lane led the team in scoring. Espinoza-Hunter 20 points-per-game and Park-Lane have both scored 20 points-per-game during the streak, and Elmore has been close behind with 16.3 points-per-game in that stretch.

 

As a team, Seton Hall ranks third in the Big East and 23rd in the entire nation in points-per-game, with 77.6. This is largely thanks to their efficient shooting from behind the arc, where they shoot 35.1%, or second in the conference. The Pirates also get to the line more than any team in the Big East, having shot 325 shots there this season. However, the Pirates have struggled defensively, allowing 67.1 points-per-game, which ranks 209th in the country and seventh in the conference.

 

They force opposing teams inside with their conference-leading 26.5% opponent three-point percentage, which is also 22nd in the nation. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of open lanes inside the paint, which opposing teams have taken advantage of. Teams shoot 68% of their shots from inside the arc against the Pirates, making 50.1% of two-point opportunities.

On the St. John’s side of things, the Red Storm are coming off of a 62-58 overtime loss to the Georgetown Hoyas. St. John’s has struggled offensively recently, scoring only 50.5 points-per-game over their last four games. Unique Drake has stepped up to lead them in scoring in each of those games, averaging 15.0 points-per-game in the last four games. On the season, she is fourth on the team in scoring (9.2 points-per-game). Three St. John’s players score double digits per game; Leilani Correa, Qadashah Hoppie, and Kadaja Bailey. That trio needs to step up their game to give the Johnnies a chance against the Pirates. Bailey and Drake do most of their damage on the inside, so the Pirates need to make sure they don’t have continued success there against a weak interior defense.

 

Defensively, St. John’s allow the third-most points in the conference at 68.3 per game. Their three-point defense is also pretty weak, as they are seventh in the conference, allowing a 31.4% of shots from behind the arc to fall. This will be important for a Seton Hall team who shoots 24.3 threes per game to take advantage of.

 

Don’t miss out on this must-win game for the Pirates! Tune into 89.5 FM WSOU to hear Danny LeMoine and Dalton Allison on the call on your flagship station for Seton Hall women’s basketball!

Justin Nicosia can be reached at justin.nicosia@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, Women's Basketball

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