For the 6th time this season, the offense failed the Marquette women's basketball team and they were unable to break the 50 point barrier, falling to Cincinnati, 60-46.

Things started out well enough for Marquette (13-14, 4-10 Big East) as they had a 6-3 lead in the early going. But a 9-0 run by Cincinnati (15-12, 6-8 Big East) over a 4 minute span put the Golden Eagles in a 12-6 hole. During that stretch, Marquette committed 5 turnovers and took just one shot. Marquette was able to keep it close for most of the half, but once the lead tipped to 10 on an Alyesha Lovett layup after a Sarina Simmons turnover with 7:42 remaining, it got out of control. From that point, the Bearcats closed the half on a 15-8 run to push the lead all the way to 17 at halftime.

The second half was largely a stationary object. Bjonee Reaves hit a three pointer to start the second half scoring and push the lead to 20, but that's as high as it would get. Marquette would cut it to 14 on two different occasions before Katherine Plouffe hit a layup in the closing seconds to ensure that the game would end at 14 as well.

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Terri Mitchell's crew heads to Fifth Third Bank Arena in Cincinnati tonight for a game against the Cincinnati Bearcats. The game will tip off at 6pm Central.

Marquette and Cincinnati have already faced off once before during this season. The Bearcats came away with a 62-54 win in the Al McGuire Center back on February 1st. At the time, that was just the second Big East win on the season for the Bearcats. Since then, Cincinnati has gone 3-1 with the only loss coming at home to #17/15 Georgetown. The winning spree has vaulted the Bearcats up to a tie for 10th place in the Big East with Syracuse. Dayeesha Hollins, Bjonee Reaves, and Chanel Chisholm are all coming off of double digit scoring games this weekend against Seton Hall.

As for Marquette, they've won just one game since falling to the Bearcats, a 72-48 win over the hapless Pittsburgh Panthers. The injury to Apiew Ojulu, and to a lesser extent the injury to Chelsie Butler, has left an already shorthanded Marquette team struggling to find protection on the interior for Katherine Plouffe. The bright spot lately has been Arlesia Morse, who is averaging 18.2 points per game in Marquette's last five contests after recording her fourth 20 point outing of the season on Saturday against Syracuse.

For the first time since falling to Notre Dame back in December, Marquette has fallen back to the .500 mark on the season.

The Golden Eagles (13-13, 4-9 Big East) got double digit scoring from four different players led by 20 from Arlesia Morse, but after opening up 6-0 on the Syracuse Orange (16-11, 5-8 Big East), they committed 21 turnovers and only shot 38.5% from the floor. Meanwhile, Syracuse was on fire most of the game, shooting over 53% in both halves. Nowhere was this more evident than when Syracuse went on a 16-0 run to turn the tables on Marquette after a Katie Young three pointer had cut Syracuse's 7 point halftime lead down to 4. Kayla Alexander did the most damage for the Orange, pouring in 23 points on 10-13 shooting.

With road trips to a Cincinnati team that already won in the Al McGuire Center and #18 Rutgers on the schedule along with the home finale against a Connecticut team that just had their 99 game home winning streak broken, things are looking bleak for Marquette continuing their 9 year post season streak. It's not out of the question, but Marquette may need to find a way to win games in the Big East tournament for it to happen.

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Marquette (13-12, 4-8 Big East) heads to The Great White North The Carrier Dome to take on the Syracuse Orange (15-11, 4-8 Big East) today at 1pm. The game will be carried on the Big East Network, including Time Warner Sports 32 here in Milwaukee, with Bob Picozzi and LaChina Robinson on the call. Marquette will be wearing pink warmup shirts and shoes for the fourth straight game as a part of the Play 4 Kay Initiative.

Syracuse comes in on a two game losing streak. Senior forward Iasia Hemingway leads the way in scoring for the Orange with 15.9 points per game. Hemingway is also one of four Orange who average more than six rebounds per game, with junior guard Carmen Tyson-Thomas grabbing the most at 7.5 caroms per game.

Marquette has lost six of their last seven games including the last two. The Golden Eagles need a win in upstate New York today to keep their post season hopes alive. With both Apiew Ojulu and Chelsie Butler in walking boots the last time we saw them, this may be a tall order to fill.

With three ties and four lead changes, the first half of Marquette's game against South Florida on Tuesday night was about what you'd expect between two teams on the bottom half of the Big East's standings. But a few more made three pointers and a few less turnovers for the Bulls gave them a 9 point advantage at the half.

That's when Chelsie Butler didn't come out of the locker room to start the second half. When she eventually emerged with about 18 minutes left in the game, she had a foot in a boot, matching the one that Apiew Ojulu was wearing that was preventing her from playing as well. By the time Butler got settled on the bench, USF had ballooned the lead to 16 on a Sasha Bernard fast break layup.

The Golden Eagles had to deal with a double digit deficit for most of the second half until Arlesia Morse drained three pointers on consecutive trips down the court to cut the margin to 7 with 5:22 remaining. But that was as close as Marquette could get it.

Morse's three point barrage gave her the scoring lead for Marquette (13-12, 4-8 Big East) with 20 points. Katherine Plouffe never had a feel for her shot in the game, shooting 3 of 13, but still narrowly missing a double-double with 8 points and 12 rebounds.

South Florida (14-13, 6-7 Big East) was led in scoring by one of the worst shooting performances I've ever seen in person. Inga Orekhova tallied 14 points on 5-18 shooting, including 2-12 behind the arc. Andrell Smith recorded a double-double for the Bulls with 11 points and 10 rebounds, but somehow managed to shoot even worse than Orekhova, ending up 5-19 from the field on the night.

Let's look at some highlights, and then hit the jump for some awards.

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Have you seen this UPS ad on TV already? The feature performer in the ad is Connecticut women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma. Now, UConn's women's basketball team is clearly the most successful program of the 21st century and I don't begrudge him for taking advantage of opportunities presented to him to make an extra buck or two.

What I do find ridiculous is that he's talking about all the things that go into bringing about the roar of the crowd. We're talking about a guy whose team can barely get their home arena half full for their NCAA Tournament games. Not their non-conference games. Not their Big East regular season games. NCAA Tournament games.

Geno Auriemma once said the following about the crowd at the Al McGuire Center:

I don't think there will be any place tougher to play than here.

In 10 days, UConn comes to the Al McGuire Center again. Let's show Auriemma what a real devoted crowd looks and sounds like.

The pink trend continues as South Florida (13-13, 5-7 Big East) comes to the Al McGuire Center for a game against Marquette (13-11, 4-7 Big East) tonight at 6pm. Not only will Marquette don their pink uniforms as part of the Play 4 Kay Initative for the third consecutive game, but the first 100 students in attendance will receive a pair of pink sunglasses. For those of you out-of-towners, the game will be carried live on CBS Sports Network with Brent Stover and Debbie Antonelli on the call.

USF broke a 4 game skid on Saturday with a home win over Villanova, but still carry a 3 game road losing streak. Senior guard Jasmine Wynne leads the Bulls in scoring with 15.6 points/game, but junior guard Andrell Smith might be the one to keep an eye on. She's averaging just 7.7 points on the season, but Smith has broken through for double digits in points in each of the Bulls' last 3 games, including 22 points on 4-8 shooting behind the 3 point arc against Villanova. Wynne and junior forward Tiffany Conner are the leaders in rebounding, averaging 5.8 and 5.5 boards respectively.

Marquette looks to take a step towards locking in a post season berth with a win over USF. However, they might have to do it shorthanded. Apiew Ojulu was in a boot during MU's last home game and didn't play against DePaul on Sunday, while Chelsie Butler turned her ankle late in the first half against the Blue Demons and only played 3 minutes in the second half. Our friends over at Paint Touches report that both women are listed as "day-to-day" for now.

Terri Mitchell coaches a roster of 11 players, two less than the NCAA allowed limit of 13 for women's basketball. Three of those players - Courtney Thomas, Lauren Tibbs, and Apiew Ojulu - were injured coming into yesterday's game against DePaul and weren't going to play. That left Terri Mitchell with 8 active players. One of those players was Margeaux Dupuy, and wasn't going to have an impact on this game.

So when the first half ended with Marquette leading by 3, but carrying Gabi Minix with 3 fouls and Chelsie Butler with a turned ankle late in the half, the likely outcome was looming. You're not going to hold onto a road lead with 6 healthy players and that's what happened to Marquette. Eventually fatigue took over and DePaul was able to pull away for the win.

Katherine Plouffe led the Golden Eagles (13-11, 4-7 Big East) in scoring with 22 while Sarina Simmons put together her 8th career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. DePaul (19-7, 7-5 Big East) had 4 players score in double figures led by Anna Martin, who added 10 rebounds to her 19 points.

We're going to pass on awards and whimsy today to take a look at Marquette's post season outlook after the jump. Join us, won't you?

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