St. John’s Has Marquette Women’s Basketball’s Number This Season

Marquette wiped out an early 12 point deficit but didn’t have enough in the tank to carry them to victory on Sunday, losing to St. John’s by a final score of 82-72. MU falls to 17-7 overall and 8-5 in Big East play as they have now lost three of their last four games.

When MU visited New York earlier this season, the Golden Eagles had no answer for Jade Walker on defense, and Aaliyah Lewis wasn’t exactly shy about delivering on offense for the Red Storm. That was still partly true, with Walker going for 19 points and seven rebounds, while Lewis tallied a double-double with 13 points and 10 assists. The real story of the game is Marquette’s complete inability to keep track of Andrayah Adams. The freshman from Minnesota did a number on Marquette, scoring 27 points on 9-of-15 shooting, including hitting on six of her nine three-point attempts in the game.

Perhaps most impressively, St. John’s opened the game on a 16-4 run and led 18-8 after 10 minutes without Adams checking into the game. That early 12 point margin was the largest lead of the game for the Red Storm, though, as Marquette came to life midway through the second period, going on a 10-0 run in just a bit over two minutes to suddenly take a one point lead on a Natisha Hiedeman jumper. That push couldn’t be sustained, though, as SJU scored on their very next shot to retake the lead, and they scored nine straight points to close out the first half.

Marquette spent the whole third quarter punching back, slowly digging their way out from underneath that halftime margin. It took til the 1:56 mark of the quarter to tie the game on a Hiedeman and-1 layup, and ultimately, we went to the fourth quarter knotted at 54 apiece.

Danielle King opened the final frame with a bucket, and Erika Davenport answered a Walker basket to put MU up 2 with 8:34 remaining in the game. That would be Marquette’s last lead of the game, as St. John’s held MU scoreless for the next three minutes and 30 seconds. When Allazia Blockton broke the streak with a tip-in, it cut St. John’s lead to six. Blockton would score again to make a five point game with 4:30 to play, and that would be the closest that MU would ever get. St. John’s slowly inched away from them and used a flurry of very pointless free throws to ensure their double digit victory.

Five Golden Eagles scored in double figures, led by 19 points from Hiedeman. She shot just 7-of-18 on the day, though, as she missed all six of her three-point attempts. As a team, MU was just 1-of-19 from behind the arc, including an awful 0-for-7 in the first quarter while throwing themselves into that big early hole and a still awful 0-for-4 while bouncing back in the second quarter.

One of the double-digit scorers on the day was Allazia Blockton, who finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, and three assists on the day while coming off the bench. It’s the second time this season that head coach Carolyn Kieger has brought her leading scorer into the game as a substitute, with the first time coming after Marquette got blown out by Creighton on the McGuire Center court. Obviously that wasn’t the case again on Sunday with MU coming off a 43 point win over Seton Hall, but it was somewhat odd to see.

Here’s some highlights for you, courtesy of the Big East Digital Network and GoMarquette.com:

Up Next: It’s back out on the road for the Golden Eagles as they’ll take their final road trip of the regular season next weekend. First up will be Butler on Friday night at 6pm Central. The Bulldogs are on a seven game losing streak after dropping a 53-43 decision to Xavier on Saturday afternoon.