Don't Call It A Comeback: Marquette 79, Oral Roberts 71 (OT)

The annual Milwaukee Public Schools game is usually a boon to Marquette as the Al McGuire Center is packed to the gills with a very enthusiastic friendly crowd. However, the opening half of your Golden Eagles' match-up against the visiting Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts was a bit of a disaster: Marquette missed its first 14 tries from the field.

Marquette got on the board with an Apiew Ojulu free throw, but was down 13-1 with 13:51 remaining in the first when Ashley Santos connected on a jump shot. Marquette finished 9 of 39 from the field in the half, whiffing on all 7 attempts from behind the arc. Although the Oral Roberts players had trouble keeping their hands to themselves, Marquette converted on just over half of their shots from the charity stripe. Somehow, the score at halftime was a not insurmountable 34-25 in Oral Roberts' favor.

Gravity was friendlier to the home Golden Eagles as the second half got underway and Marquette scored 11 unanswered points to take a lead. Oral Roberts managed to tie it up on the next shot, but soon Marquette looked like it was in the driver's seat, growing its lead to 10. But the offense cooled off: after Brooklyn Pumroy nailed a three pointer with just under four to play, Marquette would not score again except for a Ojulu free throw as Oral Roberts started fouling in the closing minute. Coach Terri Mitchell argued for an intentional foul call, but after Ojulu went 1 of 2, Oral Roberts got the ball back and Christian Key tied the game at 64.

Marquette got down to business in overtime scoring the first three baskets of the period and Oral Roberts could not recover. The Golden Eagles improved to 8-2 on the season and remain undefeated in MPS games.

Abbie Willenborg Player of the Game: Arlesia Morse heating up was the spark that the Marquette offense needed for its tear at the start of the second half. Her 28 points are a career high and got all of the attention, but hey look: six steals, too!

Clare Barnard Undersung Eagle of the Game: My first instinct is to give this one to Katherine Plouffe who was missing from the starting lineup and bench as the game started, having headed back to Edmonton for family reasons, and her absence became more noticeable as each minute ticked by without a Marquette basket. But instead I'll give a nod to Brooklyn Pumroy who notched 7 assists while committing no fouls (while drawing a couple of charges in MU's favor) or turnovers in a game chock full of them from both sides.

Up Next: Due to our site outage, you might have already seen our preview for tonight's game against 1-9 Denver! Tipoff is at 7pm at the Al McGuire Center.