Coming off of a nail-biting win at St. John’s on Wednesday and having lost the two games prior, Marquette women’s basketball sought to close out their Big East road trip comfortably as they faced Butler at a snowed-in Hinkle Fieldhouse Sunday afternoon.
Despite the absence of leading scorer senior forward Skylar Forbes (she did not travel due to personal reasons), the Golden Eagles picked up a 64-60 win over the Bulldogs behind a 23-point performance from senior guard Halle Vice, her fourth time this season hitting the mark.
“My teammates and my coach had a ton of confidence in me,” said Vice, who shot an efficient 10-of-15 and 2-of-3 from deep. “I just promised myself to stay aggressive. I saw openings and took them.”
While the Golden Eagles got off to a slower start then they would have liked, shooting 28% from the filed in the first 15 minutes, the rest of the first half was like day-and-night.
Behind 12 points from Vice and forcing Butler into 7 turnovers all over a five minute stretch, the Golden Eagles went on a 19-0 run to close the half, leading 32-19 on their way into the locker room.
“Our offense works when we get paint touches — not always to score, but to kick it out and knock shots down,” said head coach Cara Consuegra in a postgame interview. “I thought our kids really refocused on that, and that’s how they took over.”
The Bulldogs came out swinging in the second half as they had a sumptuous deficit to climb. But Vice and Jaidynn Mason led a Golden Eagles run to close yet another quarter, giving Marquette their biggest lead of the night, 14, points going into the fourth quarter.
Butler really started to get hot in the fourth quarter though, outscoring the Golden Eagles 27-17 and cutting the lead to as close as three as time whittled down.
With 23 seconds left, the Golden Eagles faced a close call and nearly lost their advantage after turning the ball over on a inbound pass, picking up a five-second violation. However, Butler’s McKenna Johnson missed the game tying three, and free throws from Lee Volker and Jaidynn Mason sealed the game.
Helping Marquette overcome the groggy start — and stay in front at the finish — was its 3-point shooting. The Golden Eagles went 6-for-12 from beyond the arc, every make coming in the first half.
With their behind-the-arc offense drying up in the latter end of the game, Mason led the Marquette defensive efforts with two steals and 14 second half points (she had 16 total), also sealing the game with a deflection underneath her own basket to force a Butler turnover.
“We defend. That’s our mantra,” said Vice. “We find ourselves in our defense, and it took over like it always does.”
Where Forbes usually resides in the post was a spot filled by Charia Smith, who hit clutch shots down the stretch and enabled ample spacing for Vice to get their 2nd and 3rd quarter runs up and going.
Marquette’s next game will come at home this Wednesday, as they host DePaul and seek a 3-game winning streak for the third time this season.
This article was written by Eamon Bevan. He can be reached at eamon.bevan@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @EamonBevanMU.