Marquette Women’s Basketball Preview: at #22 Oregon State

It’s been a big few days for Marquette women’s basketball. On Saturday, the Golden Eagles dispatched #18 Arizona State by blasting the Sun Devils out of the building in the fourth quarter. On Monday, Erika Davenport was named Big East Player of the Week after shooting over 70% while going for a double-double in both of Marquette’s games. That was followed up with Marquette collecting 18 points in the newest Associated Press top 25 voting, thanks to seven very intelligent voters putting the Golden Eagles on their ballots.

Now, tonight, Marquette has a chance to launch themselves into the top 25 next week as they square off with their second straight ranked foe. As was the case with Arizona State, Oregon State provides Marquette a chance to revisit a narrow loss from last season when MU was the youngest team in the country. That freshman heavy roster brings every major contributor back this season and and you can be sure that head coach Carolyn Kieger will have them whipped up into a frenzy to go out there and get their win back.

Marquette already has the best scoring tandem in the Big East, as Davenport and Allazia Blockton are tied for the second best scoring average. Davenport also doubles as the league’s leading rebounder. If things continue like this, we’re going to get a very interesting Player of the Year race when March rolls around. Or when next March rolls around. Or when the March after that rolls around, because remember: Davenport and Blockton are sophomores.

Big things are happening at 770 North 12th Street, and y’all need to sit up and take notice.

Game #4: at #22 Oregon State (3-0)

When: Tuesday, November 22, 2016, at 8pm CT
Where: Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, OR
Audio/Visual: Pac12 Networks have the TV broadcast, or you could stream it thru Pac-12.com, or listen for free via OSUBeavers.com. There’s live stats, too.
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWBB

Marquette has a 1-2 all time record against Oregon State. The Golden Eagles won the first ever meeting back in 1999, but the Beavers got the return game the next year and then won again at the Al McGuire Center last season.

They probably shouldn’t have won last year’s game, though. Marquette led #7 Oregon State by 10 with 6:38 left in the third quarter a year ago and the score was tied at 52 with 6:12 left in the game. If there was ever a game where Denny Green’s famous “WE LET ‘EM OFF THE HOOK” applied more, I’d like to see it.

The Beavers ended up going to the Final Four last year, and they’re still going to be good this season. Maybe not “top of the Pac-12/deep tournament run” good, but that’s because they lost two of their top three scorers from last year, which includes Ruth Hamblin, a two-time Pac-12 defensive player of the year.

They still have Sydney Wiese, who averaged 12.8 points a year ago and is at 11.3 point/game this year. Through three easy home wins to open the season, sophomore Katie McWilliams has the team lead in points at 13.0 per contest, and German junior Marie Gulich knocks in 12.3/game. McWilliams and Wiese, along with Kat Tudor, are more than happy to let fly from three point range, with the three women accounting for 44 of OSU’s 60 long range attempts this season. They’re all shooting over 40% this early in the season, including McWilliams going 7-for-11 (64%), so Marquette is going to have to pay very close attention to the arc.