Women's Basketball: Wisconsin 71, Marquette 68

After two straight games where their opponent had a chance to tie at the buzzer, Marquette was victimized by the same sequence of events last night in Madison, as the Badgers beat the Golden Eagles 71-68.

As the game started off, it didn't look like Marquette would get a chance at a buzzer beater. The Badgers made their first eight shots, including a pair of threes from both Morgan Paige and Nicole Bauman, which gave them a 21-6 advantage. But Wisconsin missed five of their next six shots, and all of a sudden, MU had a 24-23 lead after a Katherine Plouffe layup.

The Badgers would take the lead back by halftime, and managed to push it as high as seven early in the second half. Marquette came back from that deficit as well, and held a one point lead with 5:43 remaining. But the Golden Eagles wouldn't hit a field goal from that point until Arlesia Morse canned a threeball to cut the Badgers' lead from four to just one with 54 seconds left. Bauman buried two free throws after a MU foul and Morse's desperation three missed to give Wisconsin the win.

Four Factors:

eFG%: MU - 53.6% UW - 51.8%
Turnover%: MU - 29.9% UW - 24.4%
Off. Reb%: MU - 40.0% UW - 32.4%
FT Rate: MU - 23.6% UW - 32.7%

Points Per Possession: MU - 0.97 UW - 1.02

Abbie Willenborg Player Of The Game: Katherine Plouffe had a hell of a game. 14 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block. Honestly, she was so dominating for MU that I have to give her this award even though she tallied seven of Marquette's 21 turnovers.

Clare Barnard Undersung Eagle Of The Game: A career high 14 points on 7-8 shooting with five rebounds in just 18 minutes means Chelsie Butler gets this one. If she keeps this kind of production up, I'm not going to be able to give her the Undersung award much more.

Up Next: Marquette hosts UW-Green Bay on Saturday afternoon. The game starts at 2pm, and there will be free shuttles going from the Al McGuire Center to the Bradley Center for the men's game against Wisconsin.