That’s A Paddling: Marquette 95, Butler 57

Two Butler turnovers in the first two minutes helped Marquette women’s basketball score the first six points of the game on Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis, and from there, the rout was on. The Golden Eagles were up 12 by the end of the first quarter and ended up with a 95-57 victory at the final horn. Marquette is now 9-2 overall on the year and 6-1 in Big East action. Butler drops to 1-11 and 1-10 in conference play.

Marquette got better as the game went on. The Golden Eagles were mowing through Butler in the first 10 minutes while shooting 57% from the field. In quarters 2, 3, and 4, Marquette never shot lower than the 60% they posted in the third, not even in the fourth quarter when head coach Megan Duffy took her foot off the gas and emptied her bench with three minutes to go. Meanwhile, Butler fell off a cliff. They shot 54% in the first quarter in order to trail by 12 when it was over, and then never cleared better than 40% the rest of the way. Is that Butler going off a cliff or Marquette’s defense ratcheting up the intensity? Maybe a little of Column A and a little of Column B.

There’s not really much to talk about here. Marquette led by 20 for the first time with 2:37 left in the first half on a jumper by Taylor Valladay. Lauren Van Kleunen beat the buzzer at the half to put MU up 24. It was LVK again at the 7:51 mark of the third, getting two of her team high 21 points to breach the 30 point mark. Butler whittled it down to 21 at one point after that, but a transition bucket by LVK with 7:19 to go got it back to 30. A layup by Antwainette Walker with 3:04 to go made it a 40 point game for the first time.

The big news for the game, honestly, was Marquette’s three-point shooting. I can’t imagine what Butler head coach Kurt Godlevske was thinking when he was watching MU shoot at least 40% from long range in every quarter of this game when the Golden Eagles came in as a 30% shooting team from beyond the arc. 9-for-17 is the final mark, with the big day from from Claire Kaifes. The sophomore from Kansas ended up with a career high 12 points on 4-for-6 outside shooting at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Van Kleunen led MU in scoring, but the Golden Eagles got 17 from Selena Lott, who is now three points away from becoming Marquette’s 30th 1,000 point scorer in program history. Kaifes had that aforementioned 12, and Camryn Taylor had 11 points to join the double digit scoring parade, too. Chloe Marotta had a quiet day after two great performances in Marquette’s last two games, putting together eight points and three assists to go with a block and a steal.

Can I interest you in some highlights, courtesy of FS1 and GoMarquette.com?

Up Next: Y’know that 1 in the loss column in MU’s conference record? Yeah. That was Seton Hall out in South Orange a little over a week ago. On Wednesday afternoon, the Pirates come to town for the return bout as Marquette looks to avenge that lone loss. SHU has won three straight since that game, rattling off wins at home against Butler, St. John’s, and Xavier.