An Unlikely Path To Victory: Marquette 81, Providence 70

After the men's basketball game against Villanova over the weekend, our old friend Rubie Q dropped this item on Twitter:

If you don't consider Marquette's loss tonight to be "bad," I'd like to know what adjective you'd use to describe a 19 turnover performance.

— Rubie Q (@Rubie_Q) February 24, 2013

Well, after keeping an eye on the development of Marquette's women's basketball game against Providence last night, I'd like to suggest "beautiful disaster." The Golden Eagles turned the ball over TWENTY-NINE (!) times last night en route to an 81-70 victory over the Providence Friars.

I know what you're saying. "Hey, we live in a tempo free revolution! Maybe it was a high paced game, so that's not that bad!" Good effort. It was a pretty speedy game, topping out at 77 possessions, but that still gives Marquette a turnover rate of just over 37%. So how the heck do you win when you're turning the ball over close to two out of every five times down the court? For starters, you shoot so well inside the arc (53.1%) that adding in three pointers actually drags your effective field goal percentage down (52.6%). Then, after a rare miss, you go get the bouncing ball. Marquette grabbed 67.6% (!) of their misses to rack up 23 offensive rebounds on the night. If you can add drawing fouls on to that, then you're doing pretty good. MU did just that, shooting half as many free throws as they did field goals.

What you might be able to determine from all this is that Marquette destroyed Providence inside. Katherine Plouffe led the charge with 20 points and 12 rebounds, netting her seventh double-double on the season. Adding to Providence's misery was 11 points and six rebounds from Chelsie Butler and another 14 points and six rebounds in just 15 bench minutes from Lauren Tibbs. 44 and 24 from your bigs will win you a lot of games, that's for sure.

Providence had three players - Tori Rule, Symone Roberts, and Evi Iiskola go the full 40. Rule had a game high 25 points, and Danielle Pearson had nine rebounds to lead the Friars in 33 minutes off the bench.

Abbie Willenborg Player Of The Game: This one goes to Katherine Plouffe. Double-doubles are pretty sweet, and when you add four assists and four steals, you get an award.

Clare Barnard Undersung Eagle Of The Game: I've talked about how much I like Cristina Bigica's game before in these recaps. It's not surprising to me that she put up nine points, six rebounds, and four assists in 25 minutes off the bench in a game like this.

Up Next: If Marquette managed to make it back to campus last night, then they'll head back out to Washington, D.C., on Saturday to play Georgetown (14-13, 5-9).