Marquette Women’s Basketball Finds A Way To Win Against Georgetown

If I told you that Selena Lott, Marquette women’s basketball’s star guard, would finish a 63 possession game without making a single one of her 11 field goal attempts, what would you say the result of the game was? What would you say the overall demeanor of the game was?

You’d probably think that the game was ugly, and it was, with both teams shooting under 45%. But you also might have thought that Marquette lost the game because Lott kept coming up empty... but that did not happen. It was close, maybe closer than it should have been, but the Golden Eagles got the 55-48 victory over Georgetown on Wednesday afternoon even with Lott finishing with just two points on two free throw attempts. The Golden Eagles are now 12-2 on the year and are alone in second place in the Big East at 9-1.

The game tipped in Marquette’s favor in the final 90 seconds of the first half bridging into the second half. A layup by Jordan King for two of her game high 17 points moved MU in front, 22-20, with 1:15 left in the half, and those two freebies by Lott made it a 4 point game at intermission. The third quarter started with two buckets from King, one from long range, then a jumper from Taylor Valladay to make it 31-20 with 6:30 left in the period. Did it look like the Golden Eagles were about ready to bust this bad boy open and make the score look like it did in Milwaukee just a few weeks ago? Yeah, but not until after a three by Claire Kaifes and another bucket by Valladay.

That’s MU up 14 at that point, and on a 16-2 run against the Hoyas in a shade over seven minutes.

That’s as big as the lead got.

The Hoyas got it back into single digits briefly in the third, and then a pair of free throws by Milan Bolden-Morris with 5:46 brought the margin back into single digit land where it would stay for the rest of the game. A layup by Graceann Bennett with 1:33 to go made it a five point game, 53-48. It shouldn’t have gotten here, but it did.

MU got two cracks at the rim, but couldn’t finish. Georgetown had a chance to cut it to a one possession game.... but Jordan King came up with a steal, and then got fouled almost right away with 31 seconds to go. Okay, easier breathing time.... right up until King missed both freebies, including very short on the second one.

The Hoyas missed a layup on the other end and then knocked the ball out of bounds. MU ball, Duffy calls time to advance the ball, inbounds, foul, freebies by Chloe Marotta, and that’s that.

Marquette won this game with rebounding, pure and simple. Neither team shot the ball well as mentioned earlier, but the Golden Eagles had it worse, putting up an effective field goal percentage of just 36.5%. However, MU did grab up 41% of their missed shots in the game. Those 18 offensive rebounds turned into 17 second chance points for the visiting team. On the other hand, Marquette only let Georgetown have four offensive rebounds in the entire game. Sure, the Hoyas were a tiny bit more efficient on their second chances, getting four points on those four chances, but that 17-4 gap in that department meant a lot to MU when the final horn sounded.

King’s 8-for-15 shooting performance wasn’t the only good thing that she did in this game. The sophomore guard also added four rebounds, three assists, and a steal. Chloe Marotta had the team high in rebounds with nine, although Camryn Taylor was right behind her with eight. Lott didn’t score a field goal, but she did grab six rebounds and hand out seven assists, so she found her own ways to contribute.

How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and FloHoops?

Up Next: Well, it’s good news that Selena Lott got a bad game out of her system here. On Friday night, #3 UConn will be standing in the McGuire Center for their first clash with the Golden Eagles since rejoining the Big East. The Huskies pasted St. John’s by 32 on Wednesday night, which also happens to be the career high number of points that freshman guard Paige Bueckers scored for Connecticut in the game.