The Golden Eagles get a late start against the Pirates so the game can be featured on FS1.
Skylar Forbes was what appeared to you and me to be a late scratch for Marquette women’s basketball against Villanova back on Saturday. There was no reason to believe anything was wrong with her after last week’s loss to Creighton, and it wasn’t until MU published their starting lineup on social media that anyone outside the building knew anything was wrong.
Forbes was on the bench for the game, so we can rule out illness. She appeared to be moving fine during timeouts and the like and she definitely wasn’t on crutches to indicate some kind of notable injury from practice. Marquette said at the time that she was day-to-day, which perhaps indicates that Forbes took some kind of ding during shootaround or pregame warmups and it just wasn’t worth risking her health any further that day.
As it turns out, Marquette managed to figure out how to beat Villanova without her, even though the Golden Eagles trailed by 13 in the first half. That task might have been made a little easier by Villanova also missing their leading scorer, as Jasmine Bascoe missed the game as well.
Figuring out how to win on the fly when the other team is a little bit handcuffed themselves is one thing. Trying to do it a second time when the opponent has a chance to prepare for the possibility of no Skylar Forbes and doesn’t have a notable flaw like Nova did? That’s a different story. Maybe that doesn’t matter, maybe Forbes just needed to rest whatever was holding her out on Saturday, and she’ll be back in the lineup on Wednesday night.
But maybe MU is going to have to gut together another performance without her against a league foe in an effort to stack two wins together for the first time in Big East play. At least Marquette has been gutting together performances all season long. Four of MU’s five losses this season had the Golden Eagles refusing to go quietly into the night, with the fifth one being their contest against UConn. Forbes or no Forbes, MU has shown over and over again that if you want to beat them, you have to not just put them in the dirt, but make sure they stay there.
Big East Game #6: vs Seton Hall Pirates (12-4, 4-1 Big East)
Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Time: 8pm Central
Location: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Television: FS1, with Kylen Mills and Kim Adams calling the action
Streaming: FoxSports.com/live or the Fox Sports app
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWBB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 20-11 all time against Seton Hall. After getting a sweep last season, the Golden Eagles have now won four of the last five games against the Pirates. Seton Hall has never defeated Marquette in Milwaukee in 14 tries.
Wednesday night’s contest in Milwaukee comes at an awkward point in the schedule for Seton Hall. They’ve had a very nice season so far, only losing to teams in the top 45 of of the NET and two of those four losses came against teams currently in the top five of the Associated Press poll. Not much to worry about there.
However, their most recent loss was this past Saturday against Creighton. Things got away from the Pirates for a moment late in the second quarter and early in the third as the margin slid as high as 17, but it was still a two point game in the final few minutes before the Bluejays picked up the eight point road victory. Now they have this game on the road against Milwaukee, in a game that BartTorvik.com favors the Golden Eagles by the barest of margins, in a building where the Pirates have never won. That on its own is not a problem for Seton Hall. The fact that this game is sandwiched between what turned into that loss to Creighton and a road game against UConn is the problem. If the Golden Eagles can scrap together a victory on their home court, the Pirates are ticketed for a three game losing streak…. heading into a home game against St. John’s that probably won’t be a picnic for them, either.
Coaches say that they don’t want to look ahead and only focus on the game in front of them. Sometimes it’s useful to look ahead, because then you know how much trouble you’re in if you don’t get a win in the game in front of you.
The #1 item on Marquette’s scouting report for this game probably reads something like “Watch out for #3, no matter where she is.” That’s Faith Masonius, and she’s doing something on the court, both on offense and defense. The 6’1” super senior is leading the Pirates in scoring at 17.6 points per game, and while she’s not their most likely three-point shooter, Masonius is perfectly capable at over 37% on the year. She doesn’t lead the Pirates in rebounds (4.8), assists (3.3), or steals (2.2), but that’s a lot of Things That She Does.
Seton Hall is a confusing rebounding team. They’re pretty good on the offensive glass, coming in at #94 in the country per BartTorvik.com in terms of how often they pull in one of their misses. They aren’t a great shooting team overall — under 29% as a team from long distance, under 27% against Big East teams — and so hauling in misses is propping up their offense to the point of being a top 80 squad on that end of the floor. However, the Pirates are objectively a poor defensive rebounding team, ranking #229 in the country in rate over there. They’ve started to clean that up in Big East play, but it seems that Second Chance Points could be a pressure point for this game. If Seton Hall does what they want to on the offensive glass, they can get a bunch of second (or third!) tries at it, but they’re just as likely to give Marquette a chance to cash in over and over again on the other end.
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