The Golden Eagles go for the season sweep of the Hoyas in what is likely to be their last relevant game of the regular season.
It suddenly occurs to me that Saturday night is likely to be Marquette women’s basketball’s last relevant game of the season.
Which is a little weird because there’s two more games left to go after Saturday night.
But Thursday’s home finale is against Xavier, which is currently 6-21 overall, 1-15 in the Big East, and #266 in the NET as of Friday morning. Marquette beat the Musketeers by 29 in Cincinnati in late January, I’m not holding out a lot of hope of that being a Thrilling Basketball Contest.
Sunday’s regular season finale is a visit to the XL Center in Hartford to face UConn on Paige Bueckers’ Senior Night. Again, not holding out a lot of hope of that being a Thrilling Basketball Contest.
There’s going to be Big East tournament seeding stuff on the line in this last three games, so it’s important for Marquette to get this win here. Since that Scheduled Loss To UConn is looming, MU can’t afford to take a goofball loss here as they’re currently in a three-way tie with Seton Hall and Villanova for third place in the Big East. Get the wins you know you can/should, let the chips fall where they will elsewhere.
REMINDER: Marquette’s home contests are streamed nearly exclusively on FloSports, and the same goes for almost all Big East home games and almost all league schedule contests. If you are paying full price for FloSports at $30 a month, you are doing it wrong. Please use this link to pay $20 via the new-ish FloCollege offering.
Big East Game #16: at Georgetown Hoyas (11-15, 4-11 Big East)
Date: Saturday, February 22, 2025
Time: 6pm Central
Location: McDonough Arena, Washington, D.C.
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWBB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 28-4 all time against Georgetown. The Golden Eagles have won 14 straight in the series and 17 of the last 18, including earlier this season in Milwaukee. MU’s most recent loss in the series was at Georgetown in January 2018.
When these two squads met for the first time this season, the game was over almost before it started. After they traded points early, Marquette scored 12 straight on their way to a 20-2 run in the first quarter. The lead stayed pretty stable for a long while until MU had a late push in the third quarter that maxed out the margin at 25 before the game ended at 75-58. If Marquette hadn’t committed 21 turnovers, it probably would have been more lopsided.
At the time, the loss dropped Georgetown to 10-10 overall and 3-6 in the Big East. They lost their next game as well, although losing at home to Creighton is nothing to worry about, and the Hoyas responded with a road shelling of Xavier.
They haven’t won since.
Home for DePaul and Butler, at Creighton and Villanova, four straight defeats, five of six since leaving Milwaukee. Their big problem? The Hoyas can’t defend. They are 10th in the Big East in defensive efficiency per BartTorvik.com in league games, and since losing to MU, the Torvik data filter ranks GU’s defense at #230 in the country for that six game span. That would certainly fit with the idea of “Marquette’s sometimes lackluster offense ran it up on them in the first meeting.”
While MU did win easily enough the first time, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things to worry about for the second meeting. Kelsey Ransom went for 25 points in Milwaukee, shooting 8-for-16 inside the arc and tacking on six more in a perfect night from the free throw line. Ariel Jenkins put up a double-double on the Golden Eagles, getting 16 points and 10 rebounds. Marquette can’t hope to shoot 6-for-9 on threes against the Hoyas again, and that 53% on twos is no guarantee either, no matter how much the Hoyas struggle to get stops. They’re going to have to find a way to make things harder for Ransom and Jenkins if they want to leave D.C. with a win. If Ransom can be induced into settling for threes because nothing else is easy for her, that’s a net win for Marquette. She was 1-for-5 from distance in the first game, and she hits less than 29% of her threes on the year.
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