The Big East announced the All-Big East teams on Thursday morning, and Seton Hall found some familiar names among those selected.
Andra Espinoza-Hunter earned a nod on the All-Big East second team after a very solid season. Her 16.2 points per game were second for the team and sixth in the entire conference while also averaging 5.2 rebounds and a team-high 1.6 steals per game. Espinoza-Hunter’s scoring ability has been key all season. She has scored 20+ points 11 times over the course of the season and notched a career-high 35 points in a double over-time thriller against Creighton. She is among 30 candidates for the Senior Class Award and there was speculation that she could win the Cheryl Miller National Small Forward of the Year Award.
Sidney Cooks is one of two Pirates to earn a nod on the All-Big East first team for the 2021-2022 season. Cooks dominated in her first year donning the blue and white in Walsh Gymnasium. Her team-leading 10 double-doubles solidified her as one of the best bigs in the conference. After following Andra’s footsteps in transferring from Mississippi State to The Hall, head coach Anthony Bozzella could not ask for a better tandem. Cooks added 20 points six times throughout the season, two of which were 30-point bombs. She ranked 3rd on the team in scoring with 15.3 and averaged a team-high 7.8 rebounds per game. Like Espinoza-Hunter, she had 35 points of her own against Butler in late February. She has the second most blocks in a game in Seton Hall history with 7 and locked down the paint several times in key moments.
The All-Big East First Team would not be right if it missed the likeness of Lauren Park-Lane. The 5’6” junior guard improved upon a breakout sophomore season last year and showed the entire country what Seton Hall basketball is. A unanimous selection and apart of the Nancy Lieberman National Point Guard of the Year Award watch list, her team-highs 17.4 points per game and 7.5 assists per game boosted the team to a 17-11 record and wins in 9 of the team’s last 10 games. She scored 30 points in back-to-back games for the first time in program history. Park-Lane broke the single-season record for assists in a season with 152 and the single-game Seton Hall record with 18 assists.
Seton Hall plays their first game of the Big East Tournament on Friday, March 4th at 4:00 pm when it faces No. 11 Butler.
