See, they were playing Colorado. That’s the joke.
Self-inflicted problems made the difference for Marquette women’s basketball back on Friday night as they took a 69-53 loss to Colorado in MU’s first road trip of the season. That’s the first loss of the year for the Golden Eagles as Megan Duffy’s crew drops to 3-1 on the season.
It probably should have set off a warning light for Marquette that they were tied at 15-all with the Buffs after one quarter was done. After all, the Golden Eagles had coughed up the ball seven times in that first 10 minute session but shot 50% to make sure that they were putting points on the board. This is a theme that would come back to get the Golden Eagles later on.
On the other side of things, Colorado shot 39% in the first quarter to keep the game tied, and, uh, well, they didn’t do that in the second quarter. The home team knocked in 58% of their shots in the second period and closed the quarter with a 9-0 run over the final four minutes and change to hold onto a 33-25 lead at the break.
Colorado’s Frida Formann scored first in the third quarter to push the margin to double digits, but Lauren Van Kleunen immediately answered for Marquette on the other end. The lead never got bigger than 10 in the quarter, but Marquette also never got closer than four, 39-35, on a layup by Antwainette Walker with 3:52 to go. In fact, the whole third quarter was nearly a moot point, as Colorado was up seven after it was done, just a one point change in MU’s favor from halftime.
Okay, the turnover thing. Remember MU had seven in the first quarter? They had eight total in the second and third quarters combined. I’m not trying to tell you that 15 in a game is great, but at least things calmed down, right?
Yeah. So. Fourth quarter time. After a Jordan King bucket to start things off, Marquette had a miss on their next possession…. and then three. straight. turnovers. Amazingly, Colorado didn’t score at all there, so the margin didn’t change from seven. Marquette also didn’t take advantage to close the gap either, and Mya Hollingshed got a layup to go at the 6:50 mark to get the Buffaloes back to a 10 point lead. Liza Karlen was whistled for the foul for the and-1, she missed, Colorado got the offensive rebound, and Hollingshed scored again. Four point possession, Marquette down 12.
Next possession? Turnover, 6:17 to go.
That was pretty much it for the Golden Eagles, who ended up committing eight turnovers in the fourth quarter. They were able to trim the margin to eight in the area of four minutes to go, but that’s as close as MU got. The final score is a little bit more lopsided than the game actually was as the Buffaloes scored the final seven points of the game and held the Golden Eagles to just one LVK free throw for the final 3:34.
23 total turnovers. 32% of MU’s possessions in a 72 possession game — round it off to an even one-third if you want — went as a turnover to Colorado, and you’re not winning games on the road like that.
Jordan King finished with a team high 16 points, but she also committed seven of Marquette’s turnovers. Liza Karlen and Lauren Van Kleunen both chipped in 11 and got within shouting distance of a double-double on eight and seven rebounds respectively.
Marquette’s bench was largely absent in this game. The five subs combined for seven points, four rebounds, one assist, and six turnovers in 40 combined minutes. Kennedi Myles came into Friday’s game averaging 9.0 rebounds per game and came away with just one carom in 11 minutes. That ain’t getting it done, and you can see it in the final score.
How about some highlights, such as they are, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and Pac-12.com?
Up Next: Things are not going to get easier for Marquette. They’ll be in Daytona Beach this coming weekend for the Daytona Beach Invitational. Middle Tennessee, fresh off an NCAA tournament appearance in the spring and three straight wins to open the season awaits on Friday morning, while Saturday afternoon gives the Golden Eagles a shot at 4-0 Georgia, a team that’s just outside the top 25 in last week’s Associated Press poll.