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Recap: Pirates Can't Best Tigers Despite Park-Lane's 25-Point Performance

Date: November 15, 2022

By: Andrew Raccuglia

Lauren Park-Lane and the Pirates can't get it done against a scrappy Princeton squad.

Seton Hall Athletics

The Seton Hall women’s basketball team (2-1) battled in a close game, but ultimately came up short in a 62-58 loss to the Princeton Tigers (2-1).

It was the Pirates’ first loss of the season, having beaten Saint Peter’s and Rutgers by 34 and 18 points, respectively, but they kept it close in what was mostly a back-and-forth game. The Tigers were a formidable opponent that was ranked No. 24 in the AP Top 25 until Monday afternoon.

In Monday’s loss, Lauren Park-Lane scored a season high of 25 points, while Sydney Cooks scored 11 and Sha’Lynn Hagans scored 10, but their efforts were not enough as the Tigers limited their shot-making abilities just enough to win.

The Hall started off with an early advantage, scoring eight of the first ten points, but Princeton made three straight three-pointers to take an 11-8 lead. Park-Lane and Cooks responded with a few more points to end the first quarter with a single-point lead at 18-17.

Hagans started the second quarter with a three-pointer to give the Pirates a 21-17 advantage, but Princeton went on a 10-2 scoring run for the next 7:58 minutes, keeping the Pirates on a scoring drought from the field for that duration. It was broken by an Alexia Allesch three-pointer and a Mya Bembry layup.

In the final four seconds of the quarter, Park-Lane took advantage of a turnover from the Tigers’ Kaitlyn Chen to attempt a buzzer-beating layup, but was called for a charge, and no basket was made, going into the locker room trailing by one at 29-28.

The third quarter is where the Tigers began to separate from The Hall. Princeton’s Julia Cunningham made five points in the first minute compared to Cooks’ two, followed by a jumper from Ellie Mitchell to make the score 36-30.

Park-Lane took advantage of another turnover for a made three-pointer to put them within two for some momentum, but with two seconds left in the half, a foul was called, which got St. Rose to make two more free throws, making the score 44-40.

The fourth quarter started as a back-and-forth between Park-Lane and Bembry making layups against Kaitlyn Chen’s jumpers, keeping the Pirates’ distance at 48-44.

But the Tigers scored five straight to take the largest lead of the game at 52-44. Hagans scored a critical three to keep them within five, and Park-Lane was sent to the line at 54-49.

To her frustration, she missed the first free throw but scored the second, now trailing by four, and made another layup 32 seconds later to get them within three.

Now at 57-53 with 1:07 left, Park-Lane was sent to the line again, missing her first shot and keeping them behind at three. In the next 50 seconds, Grace Stone only scored one free-throw when Park-Lane made a huge three-pointer to get them within two, followed by two made free-throws from Cunningham.

Cooks made another layup with seven seconds left, and sent Chen to the foul line, who missed both. The Pirates wrestled for the ball, but Princeton got it, fouling Maggie Connolly to send her to the line with 1.9 left. She made both free throws, and a travel turnover by Cooks sealed the loss.

It was a valiant effort by the Pirates, having outshot Princeton at 42.6% to 29.6% from the field, and 40% to 23.8% from three-point range. The main reasons they lost were because they were heavily outrebounded and were less accurate on the free-throw opportunities they were given.

The Tigers also limited Sydney Cooks, who made the Big East Weekly Honor Roll this morning due to her hot start in the first week. They kept her away from the ball and from making critical rebounds that would have made the difference.

Ellie Mitchell alone had 23 rebounds (11 offensive, 12 defensive) out of Princeton’s 47, compared to the Pirates’ total of 37. Coach Tony Bozzella said in his post-game press conference you cannot win games where you are outrebounded by such a large margin, but he still credited the overall defense.

They held Princeton down from behind the arc, rarely giving them good chances (they went 5 of 21 from three) and the Pirates never trailed by double digits throughout the match.

He is very proud of the team for going toe-to-toe with New Jersey’s sole representative in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. It was also Virginia Tech transfer’s Azana Baines’ first game in Pirate blue, who was just cleared to play.

“I think we showed today why New Jersey basketball is really good,” Bozzella said.

Going forward, Bozzella knows that they need to improve by making less turnovers and boxing out more, as well as doing better in finishing plays.

The Hall will have another big opportunity for a good win this Thursday when the Columbia Lions, the Pirates’ 2022 WNIT Elite Eight foes, will visit Walsh Gymnasium.

89.5 FM WSOU will have you covered for Thursday night’s game starting at 7 p.m. Jonathan Heite and Louie Pasculli will be on the call when coverage begins at 6:45 p.m.

Andrew Raccuglia can be reached at andrew.raccuglia@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, Women's Basketball

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