CHICAGO – Marquette women’s basketball (19-6, 8-6 Big East) was able to hold off DePaul’s fourth quarter surge for a 69-58 win Tuesday night at Wintrust Arena.
Here are three takeaways from the win:
Seniors show up
Marquette led by 19 points heading into the final quarter. However, the Golden Eagles saw that lead quickly diminish in just minutes.
“We know DePaul, they go on runs, they can get hot quick,” Marquette head coach Megan Duffy said. “We just tried to keep our composure, and that was the biggest thing we talked about.”
In a season where Marquette has seen countless fourth quarter collapses result in heartbreaking losses, the seniors knew that they had to step up down the stretch. Senior guard Rose Nkumu scored seven of Marquette’s last eight points.
“Rose’s layup was with one second left on the shot clock, and then she made some big free throws,” Duffy said. “Jordan and Rose are great coming over and trying to be on the same page with me.
“That’s what I feel confident about, even though we have had some struggles, we’ve got those two young women that’ll put the team on their back and finish the game.”
Third quarter dominance continues
After a sluggish end to the second quarter, Marquette went into the locker room with a slimmer lead than it probably should of.
“Going into the break we slowed down a little bit and lost our fight,” Duffy said.
However, through 25 games this season, Marquette has outscored its opponents 495-370 in the third quarter. Tuesday night was no exception to the way the trend has gone, as the Golden Eagles would go on to outscore the Blue Demons 26-12 in the third frame.
“I thought they were awesome responding out halftime, just letting our defense and our rebounding fuel us and getting out in transition a little more,” Duffy said.
The Golden Eagles led by as many as 23 points in the third period, their largest of the game.
Finding new ways to score
For much of the season, Marquette has found success shooting the three ball. In fact, the Golden Eagles currently rank second in the Big East in 3-point percentage, hitting triples at a 38% clip in conference play.
But after failing to hit a 3-pointer in a game for the first time since Feb. 6, 2022 last Wednesday against Georgetown, the Golden Eagles followed that performance a week later by shooting 2-for-11 from deep against DePaul. However, Marquette did not let its 3-point shooting struggles limit it offensively, as it scored 36 points in the paint.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.