Big Road Win: Marquette 70, St. John’s 65

All five starters scored in double figures as Marquette made a big push in the final minute to pick up a 70-65 victory over St. John’s on Sunday afternoon. The win moves the Golden Eagles to 15-5 on the season and 8-3 in Big East action while the Red Storm drops to 6-14 overall and 2-8 in the league.

When it was all said and done, this game was a story of Marquette building a lead and St. John’s wiping it away. It didn’t start that way though, as the Johnnies got out to an 11-6 lead early on a bucket by Kadaja Bailey. By the end of the quarter, MU had turned that frown upside down and outscored the home team 14-4 the rest of the way to hold a 20-16 advantage after 10 minutes. That run kept on going as the Golden Eagles scored the first two buckets of the second quarter to stake themselves to an eight point lead and appear to be on the verge of breaking this game wide open.

But MU didn’t score for nearly four minutes which let St. John’s pull back within three. Seven, three, seven, three, the score tipped back and forth for a bit before Danielle Patterson wrapped up the scoring for the first half with a three-pointer, and so it was 36-32 at halftime. Not really what Marquette wanted after that 18-4 run bridging the two quarters, but a lead on the road is still a lead.

That eight point lead for Marquette was back to start the third quarter as Jordan King broke the ice on the second half and Lauren Van Kleunen scored off a St. John’s turnover to make it 40-32. MU got hung up on that 40 barrier for a good long stretch, and with 5:05 to play in the period, Unique Drake pulled the Johnnies back even at 40 each. The two sides traded punches for the rest of the frame, and Marquette led, 47-46, with 10 minutes to play.

Patterson opened up the fourth quarter squaring and her jumper put St. John’s out in front, 48-47. The game got stuck on that one point margin for a while with the two sides trading buckets, not every possession up and down the court, but you get the idea. An and-1 layup for Leilani Correa put the Red Storm up two for the biggest advantage of the quarter to that point with 6:04 to play, but King answered and we were back to flipping between a tie and a St. John’s lead.

With 3:39 to go, Lauren Van Kleunen got a layup to drop to give the Golden Eagles two straight buckets as well as a 59-57 lead. St. John’s came back down and Unique Drake hit a three-pointer late in the shot clock to put her team up one. A free throw from King and a bucket from LVK put Marquette up 62-60, but a Danielle Cosgrove triple from nearly the same spot as Drake’s meant the Johnnies held a 63-62 advantage with just 97 seconds to play.

Marquette called timeout, and head coach Megan Duffy dialed up a tough bucket from Karissa McLaughlin. The Johnnies came down, tried to go quickly, but Marquette tipped it away. Then after a review to confirm it was off Marquette, St. John’s seemed to forget that the clock was not on their side and when nothing was going their way, head coach Joe Tartamella called a late timeout. FINALLY that ended up with two misses, one on the original Correa attempt and another on a putback by Cosgrove. Liza Karlen hauled in the miss, and MU was inbounding and the Johnnies had fouls to give. Eventually McLaughlin ended up at the line and she sank a pair to make it 66-63 with 25 seconds left.

Definitely not over at this point, and when Cosgrove’s three from the corner, yeah, the same corner as the other makes, was in the air, it sure looked like we were going to be tied up with 20 seconds left.

But it missed. Chloe Marotta secured the rebound and went to the line to sink two free throws. 68-63 with 18 seconds left. St. John’s hurried and got a layup from Correa with nine seconds to go, but Marquette called timeout and calmly got the ball to McLaughlin to draw the foul and sink the shots from the charity stripe. There’s your game.

McLaughlin’s 18 points led all scorers as Marquette got 66 of their 70 points from their starters. Jordan King wasn’t all that far from a triple-double on 10 points, a team high nine rebounds, and six assists, which tied McLaughlin for the game high. Liza Karlen added 14 points to go with eight rebounds, three assists, two steals and three blocks, while Lauren Van Kleunen matched Karlen in points and 14 and Chloe Marotta added 10 to go with her seven rebounds and four assists.

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

Up Next: It’s a pretty big weekend coming up for the Golden Eagles. They’ll kick off a pair of home dates on Friday when Providence comes to town. That’s not the big one, though. The big one will be on Sunday when Creighton will line up opposite the Golden Eagles. The Bluejays are one of MU’s three losses in league play this season, and with the Jays sitting on two losses in the standings, you know it would be rather helpful to snag that season split. Friday’s game against the Friars will be on FloHoops, while Sunday’s date with Creighton will be on FS1.