Watching the Marquette women’s basketball game Monday night felt more like watching a ping pong match or an intense volleyball rally.
Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth the Golden Eagles (8-5, 2-2 Big East) and St. John’s went all game inside the Al McGuire Center. It wasn’t until the closing minutes of the game that a clear winner seemed to emerge — thanks to a defeat-sealing 3:03 scoring drought from Marquette.
During that period, the Red Storm (12-3, 2-2 Big East) took advantage of Marquette’s four missed shots to go from ahead one to ahead five, 69-64, with less than a minute remaining. The Golden Eagles were never able to close the gap as the game turned into a free-throw contest and St. John’s walked out of the Al with a 73-66 win.
“It’s easy to look at the last three minutes, but certainly it was over the course of 40 minutes, we just didn’t play well enough to win, and St John’s deserved to win,” head coach Cara Consuegra said. “They played really well, and they earned it.”
Both teams fared similarly on offense, Marquette shooting 46% from the field while St. John’s shot 43% from the field. Both teams shot 35% from behind the arc and took a total of 78 shots during the game.
At first glances, the box score showed almost as balanced a game as possible. But, the Golden Eagles made only 17 of their attempted 31 layups (54.8%), and, when it mattered most, they finished with one basket on their final seven attempts. But Consuegra ultimately was not thrilled with the types of shots her team missed.
“We missed a lot of opportunities. I mean, I’m not sure there was any offense we could’ve drawn up,” she said. “A lot of missed layups — not just in that three minute drought — a lot of missed layups throughout this game. I think this was just a sloppy game for us.”
One of those under-the-basket miscues was the Golden Eagles’ first clank of the drought.
Marquette, trying to regain its first lead since the 2:03 mark of the third quarter, was on a fast-break. Lee Volker caught St. John’s sleeping and ran behind its defense, receiving a pass from Halle Vice. She took two steps, didn’t dribble and laid the ball up — just for it to ring off the rim and land safely in the Red Storm’s possession.
St. John’s promptly called its first timeout to draw up a play. And, out of the break, forward Daniela Abies fought off Skylar Forbes and Jaidynn Mason under the hoop and scored the Red Storm’s final basket of the night, pushing their lead to 67-64 lead with 2:32 remaining.
Volker would airball a 3-pointer on the other end of the floor. Forbes would miss a layup. And, down four with 1:13 to go, Volker, whose three this time swished through the net, stepped out of bounds seconds before letting it fly, negating the basket and keeping the score 68-64 St. John’s.
With the game now two possessions, the Golden Eagles began fouling and the Red Storm went a clean 5-for-6 from behind the line. Vice ended the scoring drought with a layup to make it a three-point game with 27 seconds remaining, 69-66, but St. John’s continued to convert from the charity stripe and walked away with a seven-point win.
In Consuegra’s third-ever loss at the Al McGuire Center, the Golden Eagles allowed Red Storm players like junior guard Beautiful Waheed and graduate student guard Shaulana Wagner to find their shooting spots and score at will.
“Unfortunately, from an execution standpoint, I thought the same on the defensive end,” Consuegra said about the sloppiness. “I don’t think we defended as well as we normally do. We had some breakdowns in the scout. We couldn’t keep them out of the paint, which was a key to the game.”
Although Marquette was frustrated by an unsatisfactory defensive performance and plagued by easy missed shots, Forbes described the Golden Eagles’ sparks of positive energy throughout the close-fought game.
“For me, it’s more when my teammates pour into me, it’s like I’ve got to give back to them. When they’re pouring into me, telling me that things are going to be fine, it’s hard not to keep your head up,” Forbes said. “It’s contagious energy for us.”
This story was written by Mia Thurow. She can be reached at mia.thurow@marquette.edu.