Marquette University Mentioned as Seton Hall Stars Close Regular Season With Unanimous All‑BIG EAST Honors

The timing matters: with the BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Tournament arriving March 7, Seton Hall’s postseason profile has been sharpened by two unanimous All‑BIG EAST First Team selections and a defensive honor that signal momentum. Marquette University appears in the narrative not as a venue but as the opponent against whom Mariana Valenzuela posted a season career‑high, a performance that helped define her path to first‑team recognition.

Why Marquette University surfaces in Seton Hall’s season rewind

This is a contextual rewind: Valenzuela’s 26‑point game against Marquette University on Jan. 14 is one of several defining data points that the conference chose to reward. The awards—announced just before the March 7 tournament—reflect season‑long patterns rather than a single night, but that Jan. 14 performance is a clear example of how individual peaks fed team momentum heading into postseason play. Here’s the part that matters for readers tracking the tournament: those peak performances are the evidence voters pointed to when naming season honors.

All‑BIG EAST honors and season data that shaped the vote

Seton Hall placed multiple players on the conference’s annual lists, led by two unanimous selections to the All‑BIG EAST First Team and complementary postseason nods that rest on the season metrics below.

• Savannah Catalon: unanimous All‑BIG EAST First Team and a spot on the conference’s first‑ever All‑Defensive Team; started all 29 games and averaged 13. 7 points per game with shooting splits of 40. 8% (FG), 34. 5% (3P) and a conference‑best 89. 4% from the free‑throw line. She averaged 4. 6 rebounds, 2. 2 assists and 2. 7 steals and finished with 79 total steals—tied for sixth‑most in a single season in program history.
• Mariana Valenzuela: unanimous All‑BIG EAST First Team; started all 29 games and averaged 12. 9 points per game on 47% shooting and 38. 7% from three, while pulling down 7. 4 rebounds per game and recording four double‑doubles. She led the team in scoring nine times and had a career‑high 26 points against Marquette University on Jan. 14.
• Zahara Bishop: named to the All‑Freshman Team after being Freshman of the Week three times; played in all 29 games and started 16, averaging 8. 4 points (season totals truncated in the available record).

Coaching praise and preseason attention fed expectations: one of the team’s leaders was highlighted on preseason watch lists and weekly honor rolls multiple times, and other veterans and transfers provided the production that voters rewarded. What’s easy to miss is how Valenzuela’s efficient shooting—47% overall and nearly 39% from deep—created scoring bursts that opponents had trouble constraining.

Micro timeline of relevant season moments (selected):

• Dec. 4: Valenzuela posted a 25‑point, 13‑rebound double‑double against Butler.
• Dec. 22: Valenzuela scored 23 points at Creighton.
• Jan. 14: Career‑high 26 points for Valenzuela against Marquette University.
• March 7: BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Tournament begins (awards announced ahead of the tournament).

If you’re wondering why this keeps coming up for tournament previews: unanimous selections and postseason defensive nods change how opponents scout and game‑plan. Catalon’s combination of offensive efficiency and turnover creation through steals, and Valenzuela’s inside‑out scoring, are the two profiles coaches will prepare for first.

Who feels the immediate impact: Seton Hall’s rotation, opposing teams in the conference tournament bracket, and observers tracking seeding and matchup narratives. The awards make the two players touchstones for how Seton Hall might perform under postseason pressure.

The real question now is how those individual storylines translate under tournament intensity; the statistical case for both players is clear, but single‑elimination play can reshape expectations rapidly. The available information reflects regular‑season performance and the conference’s formal recognition; details about how coaches will respond in the tournament remain to be revealed.

It’s easy to overlook, but the bigger signal here is that the honors were unanimous for both Catalon and Valenzuela—consensus recognition that tends to elevate a team’s public profile entering postseason play.

Writer’s aside: What’s easy to miss is how individual game peaks—like Valenzuela’s night against Marquette University—become shorthand for a player’s season when award voting occurs.