Queens Of Chicago: Marquette 72, DePaul 63

Big nights rom Jordan King and Chloe Marotta helped power Marquette women’s basketball to a 72-63 victory over DePaul on Wednesday night. The win snaps a three game losing streak for the Golden Eagles and moves them to 10-5 overall and 3-3 in the Big East.

Marquette came out of the gates hot, shooting 10-for-20 from the field and a perfect 4-for-4 from downtown as the Golden Eagles exploded out to a 26-16 lead in the first 10 minutes. A 9-2 burst in the middle of the quarter left the Golden Eagles up eight, 14-6, and they would lead by as many as 11 before a free throw from DePaul’s Zaria Hurston made it a 10 point differential after 10 minutes.

It was a 5-1 run to end the first for Marquette and that extended to 9-1 as Jordan King scored the first two buckets of the second quarter. That got MU’s lead up to 14, and a triple from Kenzie Hare kept the hot shooting going as well as put Marquette up 16, 37-21, with 5:56 to play before halftime. They didn’t do a great job of maintaining that margin as the Blue Demons were able to get it back to a 10 point gap with about 90 seconds left in the half, but King said “NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND” and tacked on four points in the final 62 to make it 46-32 at the half.

A captivating up and down basketball game slowed waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down in the third quarter. Marquette went without scoring at all for nearly five minutes, but thankfully DePaul couldn’t put it in the net either, and when Chloe Marotta broke up that MU stretch, she put the lead back to 11 points with 2:14 left in the period. That push gave DePaul a little confidence, and so they got two buckets, one each from Darrione Rogers and Aneesah Morrow, to make it a seven point game with 10 minutes to go.

Marotta decided that she didn’t like that, so she came up with a steal to start the fourth, then put it up and in for a bucket, then after MU got a stop on the other end, she came up with an offensive rebound and then hit a cutting Hare for a three-pointer. 1:11 played, MU on a 5-0 stretch, and it turned into 10-0 and a 17 point lead, 64-47.

This is a Marquette/DePaul battle though, so of course the Blue Demons managed to get it back to single digits. Anaya Peoples hit a three and then scored on the next possession to make it a nine point game.... but there was 2:44 to go. By default DePaul was running out of time, but Marquette made the stops they needed to make as well. Time just evaporated and Marquette walked away with the win.

A tip of the cap to Aneesah Morrow, who finished with 24 points, 15 rebounds, two assists, three blocks, and three steals. Marquette did not really have an answer for her, but also she did not have that much of an impact on this game partially because she had 11 and 11 in the second half when Marquette was already up big.

The Golden Eagles were led by 23 points from Jordan King, who was a big reason why Marquette shot 41% behind the arc in this one when it was all done. She was 3-for-6 from deep as part of a 7-for-18 shooting game, and she added three rebounds, nine assists, and two steals. Chloe Marotta missed a double double by one rebound, but she did add 18 points and four assists to go with three blocks and a steal. Emily La Chapell had a good game coming off her Big East Freshman of the Week award, putting up 10 points, eight rebounds, and two assists.

One thing to note: Liza Karlen did not play in this game and in fact, she did not even make the trip to Chicago. According to an athletic department spokesperson, Karlen suffered an undisclosed injury and there is no timetable for her return to action. There’s a lot to parse in that phrasing, but for now, we’re going to wait and see what happens.

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

Up Next: Marquette wraps up this stretch of three straight road games with a visit to #25 Creighton on Sunday afternoon. That one is particularly fun, as the 3pm tipoff is scheduled for CBS Sports Network. The game lost a little bit of its luster as the Bluejays lost 79-75 to Providence at home on Wednesday night. It’s Creighton’s fifth loss in their last seven games, and they’re pretty much guaranteed to not be ranked on Monday no matter what now.