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With the Plouffe family in attendance to witness the twin sisters collide for the first time in their collegiate careers, Marquette came away with the win, 72-65. Katherine Plouffe led all scorers with 21 points and she added nine rebounds, along with one assist, one steal, and one block as well. Utah's Michelle Plouffe wasn't going to go down without a fight, as she had team highs in points with 18, rebounds with 13, and assists with seven.
It was three point shooting that started out determining how the game went. Through the first 15 minutes of the game, Utah went three for six behind the arc, while Marquette missed all six of their long distance attempts, and the Utes built a 23-13 lead. But then Katie Young caught fire. She hit her last two three point attempts of the half, including one that tied the game at 27, as Marquette closed out the last five minutes before intermission on a 16-7 run to make the Utah lead just 1 at the break.
Stop me if you've heard this one before, but Marquette came out of the half ready to roll. Three of their first four three point attempts fell, including two from Arlesia Morse and another strike from Young, and by the time the second one from Morse fell with 12:26 left to play, Marquette had a 10 point lead. Free throws from Katherine Plouffe would push it to 12, and a KP jumper made it a 61-47 lead with five and a half to play.
But Utah was still fighting. A 9-0 run with two three-pointers from Michelle Plouffe in just 2:34 cut the lead to just five points and forced a MU timeout. Brooklyn Pumroy got a layup out of the huddle to break the run, and from there, Marquette was able to drain seven of eight free throw attempts, three by Cristina Bigica and four by Morse, to put the game away.
Marquette moves to 6-1 on the season, while Utah falls to 2-4.
Abbie Willenborg Player of the Game: While it's tempting to go with Katherine Plouffe as she defeated her sister, I have to go with Katie Young. She restarted the streak of either Plouffe or Young getting a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds, and she hit three straight triples to swing Marquette from down 10 to up 10.
Clare Barnard Undersung Eagle of the Game: Oh, man, this is great, I've got a perfect example here. With Apiew Ojulu sporting a set of blue warmups for this game after suffering some kind of unknown injury 75 seconds into the game against Tennessee Tech, Lauren Tibbs got the nod in the starting lineup. While Tibbs was fine (2-2, four points, three rebounds, 14 minutes), this award goes to Chelsie Butler. The junior center started the season in street clothes with an injury, but she put together a nice game here when Marquette needed her to produce something to cover for Ojulu. Butler scored seven points, including three of four from the charity stripe, grabbed four rebounds, two on each end, and dished out two assists, as well.
Up Next: Marquette returns home next Saturday night for their part in Double Badger Hate Week. They'll play host to Wisconsin (4-2), with the game set to tip off at 7pm. The Badgers are coming off a loss to Vanderbilt in Nashville, where you'll remember that Marquette came away with a victory. Bucky will host Boston College on Thursday before heading east on Saturday.