By Ray Floriani (@rfloriani)
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — Seton Hall moved to 2-0 in Big East play Sunday with an 82-78 victory over 24th-ranked Marquette. The contest at Walsh Gymnasium saw the Pirates advance to 6-3 while Marquette fell to 7-2 (1-1 Big East).
A significant win: It’s still early and the conference season is just beginning. While you can’t label this a must-win, it was a big one for Tony Bozzella’s group to get over the No. 24 Golden Eagles, a team entering with one loss — an overtime setback to UCLA in the Bahamas — that Bozzella feels is a contender for Big East honors.
“It was a hard fought physical game,” he said. “We had to play our best game and we did that today. It was just a great win.”
Seniors come through: Lauren Park-Lane and Sidney Cooks came up huge for Seton Hall. Park-Lane scored 31 points while handing out seven assists, both game-high totals. Cooks added 23 points. Park-Lane was very effective penetrating through the Marquette defense, finishing or finding an open teammate.
“She was awesome,” praised Marquette coach Megan Duffy. “She was the difference in this game.”
In the stretch, Park-Lane hit two key floaters in the lane, then found Cooks wide open with a picture-perfect pass. The final minutes saw the ball in her hands as she iced the contest from the charity stripe.
“Lauren just does what it takes to win,” Bozzella added.
Cooks was dominant inside on the low blocks, though she did show versatility stepping outside to can a mid-range jumper and a 3-pointer. Senior leadership and performance is something Bozzella expects, as the coach noted, “seniors just have to come through.”
Defense: Marquette led 21-20 after the first period. The Golden Eagles had been hitting from the perimeter and finding openings on a few backdoor cuts. The second quarter saw the Hall tighten the defense, denying those cuts to the basket and overall, coming out in a more aggressive stance. In that second stanza, Seton Hall limited Marquette to 12 points and took a seven-point lead into halftime.
“They turned us into a jump shooting team,” Duffy conceded. “And shots were not falling. Credit their defense.”
Marotta was outstanding: Chloe Marotta scored a team-high 30 points while pulling down a game-pacing 12 rebounds. The 6’1” senior was extremely difficult to contain, especially down low.
“In the past she did the dirty work,” Bozzella said of the Marquette senior. “She’s improved her skills overall. We had no answer for her. And it wasn’t poor defense, it was her outstanding offense.”
Team effort: It wasn't just Park-Lane and Cook making the victory possible. Seton Hall had several other players contribute. That is a situation the Hall needs as the season and conference play progress. Mya Bembry grabbed a team-leading eight rebounds. Kae Satterfield came off the bench to score 12 points. Azana Barnes also came in relief to collect seven rebounds. Amari Wright also drew Bozzella’s praise for her hustling 20-minute effort.
Handling the schedule: In the Big East weekend schedule, a team is usually home for Friday and Sunday games. Seton Hall was on the road and won at Xavier Friday night. They flew in and got back to campus at 2 a.m. Saturday morning. The team had a workout while the coaches spent a good part of Saturday and early Sunday game planning. After Sunday’s win Bozzella proclaimed, “tomorrow, the team is getting a well-earned day off.”
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