Marquette Women’s Basketball Edges #22 Oregon State

I told y’all before the season. I told y’all that you need to get on board with Carolyn Kieger’s Marquette women’s basketball team.

Thanks to Amani Wilborn’s layup with 13 seconds left, the Golden Eagles dropped #22 Oregon State on Tuesday night, 74-73. Marquette moves to 4-0 on the season, but more importantly, they move to 2-0 against ranked teams, and yes, both of those W’s came in a four day span.

Wilborn got the bucket that gets the glory, but it was Natisha Hiedeman that powered the Marquette offense on Tuesday night. The sophomore from Green Bay finished with a game high 24 points that including 11 straight for the Golden Eagles in a three minute stretch in the second quarter. That outburst tilted a three point MU lead into an eight point Marquette advantage with 3:36 left in the half.

Of course, Oregon State isn’t ranked for their health, so they pushed back, cutting it to just two points at the half when Sydney Wiese beat the buzzer with a jumper. The Beavers kept pushing, tying the game out of the gate in the third quarter and taking a lead on a pair of Marie Gulich freebies less than three minutes in. Marquette stayed right with OSU, and two freebies for Allazia Blockton gave the Golden Eagles a one point lead heading to the final frame.

That’s when things started to go sideways for Marquette, not entirely unlike how they went sideways a year ago in the McGuire Center against the Beavers. Oregon State scored on their first three possessions of the fourth quarter to take a five point lead which would eventually become a six point lead as late as 3:09 remaining in the game. Then: Triple from Hiedeman, her fifth and final long range make of the game, followed by four straight free throws from Blockton, who made all 11 of her shots from the line. BANG, just 1:52 off the clock and Marquette was back up by one.

Erika Davenport got a steal, but even with two cracks at the rim, Marquette couldn’t extend the lead. From there, the two teams traded set plays out of timeouts: Oregon State got a layup from Gulich for a one point lead, then Wilborn’s layup and eventual winner, then finally, Katie McWilliams missed from distance and Oregon State ran out of time and ran out of opportunity.

Obviously Hiedeman was ridiculous in this game, posting a 24/5/6. Blockton was no slouch, either, adding to her Big East Player of the Year resume with a 23/7/2/1 performance. Erika Davenport, the reigning Big East Player of the Week, kept doing what she’s been doing all year: posting her fourth double-double of the season (yes, that’s one in each of MU’s games), scoring 11 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. She also had an assist and two steals.

How about some highlights, courtesy of Pac-12.com? DISCLAIMER: I can not explain to you why this package does not include Wilborn’s game winner. FOR SHAME, PAC-12.COM. FOR SHAME.

Up Next: Marquette’s going to stay out on the West Coast for the rest of the week. They’ll take part in Pacific’s Tiger Turkey Tip-Off this weekend, facing Santa Clara (1-2) on Friday and the hosting Tigers (1-2) on Saturday. With Marquette already earning votes in this week’s AP poll, it’s safe to assume that the Golden Eagles will be ranked in next week’s poll presuming they come away from Stockton, CA, with a pair of victories.