After a 64-61 loss to Seton Hall on Wednesday, Marquette women’s basketball was in need of a get-back game. And a prime opportunity presented itself three days later, as the Golden Eagles hosted a program they had won 15 straight matchups against in the Georgetown Hoyas.
Despite having only ever lost once at home against Georgetown, Saturday’s game was a brutal exception to every prior trend of this bout, as the Hoyas (11-7, 5-4 Big East) commandingly defeated the Golden Eagles (11-7, 5-4), 63-54. The defeat came on the program’s annual ‘Alumni Day,’ and what should have been a jovial celebration of past generations of Golden Eagles quickly turned into a frustrating afternoon.
“It just didn’t seem like we were ready to play,” head coach Cara Consuegra said.
After the first five minutes, Georgetown had an 8-0 lead and Consuegra burned an early timeout. Soon after, she made another bold decision to sub out all five of her starters to see if anything would figure it out rotation-wise.
“I was displeased with effort of our starters,” said Consuegra. “I took them all out to let them know I was displeased, and that if the effort didn’t change, that we were gonna have to change our lineups.”
The Hoyas would score another 11 points before the Golden Eagles got on the board thanks to Skylar Forbes’ two free-throws to make it 19-2. In the opening eight-and-a-half minutes, Marquette went 0-for-8 from the floor.
It took almost 60 more seconds and one more clank for the blue & gold to convert a basket, though, and the Golden Eagles ended the first quarter trailing 21-4, the least amount of points they’ve scored in the first 10 minutes all year. They would not get much closer to the Hoyas on the scoreboard all night.
Despite their prior success on threes leading up to this game, it took 17 pain-staking minutes for Jordan Meulemans to drain one after the team started 0-for-8 from beyond the arc. The Golden Eagles finished with a year-worst 19% (4-of-21) 3-point clip.
At halftime, Marquette trailed 41-18 — its largest deficit after 20 minutes of the season — after shooting just 1-for-11 from 3-point range, and Georgetown led by as many as 27 points, 50-23, with 6:53 left in the third quarter.
As the game went on it became clear that whatever the Golden Eagles aimed to do on ether side of the ball, the Hoyas would attack them, getting to their spots while keeping Marquette out of sync. Georgetown’s pressure forced Marquette into slowed-down ball movement and limited kick-out opportunities which had been their go-to for positive play all year.
It did not matter the blue & gold players and staff came back out for the second half with an urgency to dig themselves out of the very sizeable hole they were in. Lee Volker’s 3-pointer to open the third quarter, followed by a Jaidynn Mason fast-break layup off a turnover were for naught. An 8-0 run and a later 10-0 stretch did not do anything beyond make the scoreboard look less dreary.
The Golden Eagles could only get the deficit down to as much as seven with seven seconds to play after shooting just 2-of-13 during the final six-and-a-half minutes.
“It’s just disappointing, that’s not how we play,” Volker, who led the comeback effort with 16 points, said. “But you learn more from the losses.”
Khia Miller stood out for the Hoyas throughout the entire affair, personifying Georgetown’s approach to the game as she continuously manipulated the Golden Eagles’ defense with 21 points on 80% shooting.
“We had some issues with matchups in this game,” said Consuegra. “We just didn’t play her [Miller] very well.”
Marquette will look to regroup with conference play continuing Wednesday, as they take a trip to New York to face the Red Storm of St. John’s.
This article was written by Eamon Bevan. He can be reached at eamon.bevan@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @EamonBevanMU.