The 2020-21 Seton Hall Women’s Basketball season ended in heartbreaking fashion with a second-round Big East Tournament exit. However, in a season where it overcame extreme adversity and exceeded the Preseason Coaches' Poll of a sixth-place finish in the overall standings, the team had a lot of pride to take in. Here is how they looked by the numbers.
As the No. 3 seed in the Big East Tournament, Seton Hall had already exceed their Preseason Coaches' Poll expectations of being the No. 6 seed. They were also coming into Saturday night's game against Creighton off a five-game winning at the Mohegan Sun Arena.
After a lackluster defensive showing on Saturday against the Georgetown Hoyas in Washington D.C., the Pirates sent their NCAA Tournament hopes into a freefall. A Quad 2 loss is never good, especially against a team that is second-to-last in their conference.
Seton Hall's defensive woes from the perimeter have been a constant issue for the team this season, and they proved detrimental in Saturday night's loss to Georgetown. The Hoyas shot 10-for-16 from three-point range and outshot the Pirates from the field 50% to 43.3% to put a dent in Seton Hall's NCAA Tournament hopes.
After a tough run of games that saw the Seton Hall men’s basketball team go winless in four games against No. 10 Villanova and No. 14 Creighton, the Pirates came into Wednesday’s home game against DePaul on a three-game winning streak.
The Pirates rolled into Storrs, Conn. on Wednesday night off six straight wins and sitting second in the Big East standings. The obstacle between them and their winning streak? No. 2 University of Connecticut who, in thier own respect, were coming off an impressive win over No. 1 South Carolina two days prior.
The Pirates came into Sunday’s faceoff with Butler fresh off a dominant win against Marquette two days before. Mississippi State graduate transfer Andra Espinoza-Hunter and senior Desiree Elmore led the way as both had over 20 points, and they looked to keep up the senior leadership against a 1-7 Butler squad.
After an unexpected day of rest following the postponement of Wednesday's away game against Creighton, the Seton Hall women's basketball team came into Friday's game against Marquette looking refreshed. The Golden Eagles had a perfect 3-0 conference record but were handed their first conference loss of the season by the Pirates after standout performances from graduate transfer Andra Espinoza-Hunter and senior Desiree Elmore.
Coming off a 12-point comeback victory over Providence on Sunday which included 20-point performances from Lauren Park-Lane and Mya Jackson, the Pirates sought to go above .500 in Big East play on Wednesday with a win over Villanova.
Coming into Saturday's game, Butler and Seton Hall were on two entirely different trajectories. The Bulldogs were seeing a massive decline from last season as they went from being ranked as high as fifth in the country, to now sitting at 1-2 in-conference and 2-4 overall. Meanwhile, the Pirates were coming off one of their best all-around team games in years when they beat Xavier last Wednesday.
Solutions by The State News
