
The grad transfer from Purdue was an NBA Jam-style fireball against the Hoyas at the McGuire Center.
Georgetown forgot to read their scouting report on Marquette. That’s the only possible explanation for what happened at the McGuire Center on Friday night. Grad transfer Karissa McLaughlin connected on seven of her 14 long range attempts as the Golden Eagles blew the Hoyas off the court, 68-32, to move to 11-4 overall and 4-2 in Big East play. Georgetown drops to 6-5 overall and 1-2 in the league.
Fittingly, the first points of the game for Marquette came on a three from McLaughlin. That put the Golden Eagles up 3-0 out of the gate and gave them a lead that they would never surrender. That bucket also came on a third chance for the Golden Eagles as they picked up two offensive rebounds on their first possession, something that would also dictate the outcome of this game. By the time the first quarter came to an end, McLaughlin had scored 12 points, attempted (and missed) her only non-three-point shot of the game, and was beating the Hoyas by herself, 12-9. Marquette as a team? Up 21-9 after 10 minutes.
A late and-1 by Jordan King in the first quarter pushed Marquette’s margin from nine points to 12, and that was it for single digit leads for MU in this one. Georgetown got the first bucket of the second quarter at the 7:47 mark, and McLaughlin’s fifth triple of the game made it a 13 point game…… and kicked off a 17-0 run by the Golden Eagles. Dany Middleton’s bucket with 1:24 to go made it 38-11, although the Hoyas scored the last basket of the half to make it a 25 point game at the break.
I want to make sure to emphasize this: Karissa McLaughlin hit her fifth three-pointer of the game with 6:53 to go in the second quarter. That’s just a complete failure by Georgetown to read a scouting report. Or write a scouting report. McLaughlin is the only Golden Eagle with more than 20 long range attempts this season and over half her shots come from behind the arc and she’s the only player on the team hitting more than 25% of her threes. GU literally didn’t have to do anything beyond the arc OTHER than defend McLaughlin, and they just completely forgot to do it.
Other things Georgetown forgot to do? Get defensive rebounds. Sure, it’s not a secret that Marquette’s a great offensive rebounding team. But outside of McLaughlin, Marquette shot just 22-for-55 in this game. That’s 40%, and their effective field goal percentage on non-KMac shots was just 40.9% because the other Golden Eagles went 1-for-4 from long distance. There were a bunch of missed shots by Marquette just floating around out there….. and Marquette got to 46% of them. The Golden Eagles scored 18 second chance points on their 20 offensive rebounds. I’m not saying GU would have had a chance in this game if they had cut that by even 25%, because it’s definitely possible that McLaughlin would have just kept the flamethrower going even longer, but the Hoyas definitely didn’t do themselves any favors in this game. Georgetown turning the ball over on 30% of possessions also didn’t help. Well, it helped Marquette, and that’s what we care about, right?
The third quarter was Marquette’s “worst” quarter of the game, as they only outscored the Hoyas 17-14. Georgetown never got closer than 20, though, and a jumper by Middleton with 2:26 to go put MU up 30 for the first time. I presume head coach Megan Duffy made some sort of comment about finishing strong in the huddle between quarters, as her squad scored the first two baskets of the frame on their way to a 13-5 score in the final ten minutes.
McLaughlin’s 21 led all scorers with ease as six points from Kaliyah Myricks led the visiting Hoyas. The Golden Eagles also got 12 points off the bench from Middleton, and Lauren Van Kleunen knocked together a relatively quiet double-double on 10points and 10 rebounds. Four assists and two blocks for the super-senior, so a great game for her. Quietly also great? Rose Nkumu in her second straight start. Just four points for her, but nine assists, four rebounds, and four steals. I think it’s safe to say that Duffy will send her out there next time around, too.
How about some highlights, courtesy of FloHoops and GoMarquette.com?
Up Next: The Friday/Sunday schedule means a quick turnaround yet again for Marquette as they will play their third game in five days. It’ll be Villanova coming to town for a 1pm start time on CBS Sports Network. The Wildcats hung with DePaul for 20 minutes on Friday night and led by three at halftime, but they ended up with a 75-63 loss to the Blue Demons to drop their record to 8-6 on the year and 2-3 in the Big East.