The Golden Eagles let a good start go to waste in the second quarter and couldn’t fight their way back in.
I think it’s safe to say that Marquette’s offense and Marquette’s defense are both on the hook for the Golden Eagles taking a 65-53 loss on the road against Villanova on Sunday afternoon.
If Marquette’s offense had been able to keep up their scoring clip from the first seven minutes of the game as they took a 14-7 lead against the Wildcats, I suspect they find a way to win. 14 points in seven minutes is two points per minute of basketball, and if you can mix 80 points up next to a standard issue middle of the road defensive effort relative to what we’ve seen from MU this year, that should be enough to win.
If Marquette’s defense didn’t disappear for the final three minutes of the first quarter and stay in hibernation all the way through til halftime, I suspect that they find a way to win the game. From that 14-7 Marquette lead late in the first quarter, Villanova went on a tear for the rest of the half. The final three minutes of the first quarter tilted 11-2 favoring the Wildcats, and then the home team won the second quarter 20-10. 31-12 for 13 minutes, Marquette down 38-26 at the break.
The game wasn’t explicitly over because of that run that Villanova went on. You don’t want to be down 12 at the half, but when you score eight straight early in the third quarter, including six straight from Skylar Forbes, then it’s a 40-34 ball game with 5:44 to play. The problem was that’s as close as Marquette got the rest of the way. Kennedi Perkins hit the back end of a pair of free throws with 2:30 left in the third quarter to get the game back to that six point gap at 43-37, but that was it for MU. Nova scored the final two buckets of the period and then opened the scoring on the fourth quarter with a layup from Lara Edmanson, boom: 12 point game, 9:27 to go. Marquette officially hadn’t actually moved anywhere from halftime.
They poked it back to single digits a couple of times in the quarter, and I suppose there was still a chance when Halle Vice cut it to nine with 3:24 left, but Ryanne Allen answered with a three on the other end to pretty much snuff out whatever chance was left. Turns out losing a 13 minute stretch by 19 points is bad for you, who knew?
Marquette had won in Milwaukee in the first meeting of these two teams, but both squads were without their leading scorers. I think we can say that Villanova came out on the better end of getting their star back, as Jasmine Bascoe went for 17 points on 6-for-12 shooting, and she added three rebounds, six assists, and a steal. Marquette got 12 points from Skylar Forbes here, but she shot 3-for-11 from the field. If you just said “hey, wait a minute,” yep, you’re right: Forbes’ only three buckets of the entire game was that six straight run early in the third quarter. Helpful to be clear, it stopped the game from being a runaway, but MU’s going to need more from her to win games like this. Two rebounds, three assists, two blocks, two steals qualifies as “more,” sure, but four turnovers mitigates that.
How about some highlights, such as they are, courtesy of and GoMarquette.com and FloSports?
Up Next: Marquette will get a chance to restart a winning streak when they return to the McGuire Center on Wednesday night. They will host St. John’s for a 6:30pm tipoff, and FloSports will have the broadcast there. The Red Storm are now 3-8 in Big East play after beating Xavier by 11 on Sunday for their second straight victory.