Marquette women’s basketball (15-4, 4-4 Big East) lost its third consecutive game to No. 8 UConn Tuesday night at the Al McGuire Center.
Here are three takeaways from the Golden Eagles second straight loss:
Bueckers continues to dominate
Redshirt junior guard Paige Bueckers has had her way with Marquette this season.
The Hopkins, Minnesota native is averaging 25.5 points and five assists across the Huskies’ two games against the Golden Eagles so far. Tuesday, she scored 26 points, shooting 11-for-18 from the field and 4-for-5 from deep. She also dished five assists and earned two rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
While being sidelined for all of last season due to an ACL injury, Bueckers was forced watch from the bench as the Huskies lost to the Golden Eagles last February for the first time in program history.
Keeping in mind that the loss came at the Al McGuire Center, Bueckers and the Huskies had a little extra motivation coming into this one.
“I don’t take any game for granted,” Bueckers said. “Obviously with what happened last year and playing against a great team like Marquette on the road, it’s a huge win for us and very rewarding playing this game.”
Too many miscues
Turnovers have been a glaring issue for the Golden Eagles all season.
When Marquette visited UConn in December, it only turned the ball over nine times. However, Tuesday night was a different story.
The Golden Eagles committed 16 turnovers, which led to 24 points for the Huskies.
“The first time we played them they only had nine (turnovers), but it’s what they do off of those nine turnovers,” Marquette head coach Megan Duffy said. “We had a few more of those tonight, and (they) had some timely baskets. A little bit of it was losing our composure a little bit too.”
Marquette is averaging nearly 16 turnovers per game in its four losses this season, an area that it definitely is going to want to clean up if it plans on making any noise in March.
Karlen keeps shining
Senior forward Liza Karlen led Marquette with 21 points and six rebounds. The St. Paul, Minnesota native led all scorers after one period of play with eight points as Marquette trailed by just one. By the end of the first half, she scored 19 points.
“We talked about penetrating to get the drive and kick opportunities,” Karlen said. “When Aaliyah (Edwards) was on me I tried to go outside a little bit more so that I could puller her out so that my teammates could get some good looks in the paint as well, with her (Edwards) being a great shot blocker.”
The game marked Karlen’s eleventh straight in double figures, as she has only fallen short of that achievement one time this season.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.