It was a bad sign for how Marquette women’s basketball was going to handle their regular season home finale when they went into the second quarter trailing 18-14. A Skylar Forbes layup in the final minute of the opening 10 minutes broke up a 9-0 Xavier run to jump out to a six point lead, and that of course is made even more frustrating by coming directly on the heels of an 8-0 Marquette run to get the Golden Eagles out in front 12-9. Tack on a Mariyah Noel triple on her way to 24 points in this
game, and that’s 12-2 Musketeers to build a seven point lead early in the second quarter.
As the second quarter went along, Marquette seemed to remember that they’re a pretty good three-point shooting team and they started hunting those shots instead of spending their entire offensive possession trying to get the ball to Forbes or Halle Vice in the post. A three from Jordan Meulemans with 5:56 left got Marquette back within one point, and consecutive triples from Forbes and Bridget Utberg in the final 90 seconds before intermission sent the Golden Eagles into the locker room up 32-26. That’s an 18-5 run after Noel’s three-pointer to open the second quarter scoring, and MU had held Xavier without a field goal for over five straight minutes to do it.
That felt encouraging.
Marquette committing a turnover on their first possession of the second half to let the Musketeers score twice in the first 30 seconds did not feel encouraging.
However, threes from Vice and Kennedi Perkins helped Marquette build an eight point lead, and then a bucket from Vice in the paint made it 47-38, the largest lead of the game for the Golden Eagles. They were up nine again as the clock wandered under two minutes to play in the period off another bucket from Vice — she scored Marquette’s final seven points and nine of the final 11 — but Xavier had the last word as a turnover from Jaidynn Mason with 13 seconds left let Noel score right before the horn. That made it a six point game, 51-45, heading to the fourth, which felt like a far cry from building up that nine point lead just moments earlier.
The fourth quarter was a game of runs. First up was Xavier refusing to go away as they scored seven straight to get within one, 53-52, and two more Marquette turnovers helped them do it. However, MU put together a longer 14-4 run capped by a three-pointer from Lee Volker to finally find that double digit margin, 67-56, that Marquette had been wandering towards all game and just never quite pushing over the hump.
It was towards the end of this that I saw one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever seen from a referee. Xavier’s Meri Kanerva committed an over and back violation, and MU head coach Cara Consuegra did the “run three steps, point with two hands, and make the over and back signal” complaint to the ref on the bench sideline…… WHO THEN BLEW HER WHISTLE AND CALLED THE OVER AND BACK.
To be clear of the timeline: Infraction, Consuegra sees it, Consuegra realizes they’re not calling it, Conseugra loudly objects to the no-call, ref who had all the same time to react to this as Consuegra but didn’t do anything makes the call that Consuegra was telling her she missed. It benefited Marquette, obviously, but holy crap, you’re just calling stuff that coaches are telling you that you missed??
Xavier responded again as the clock went under two minutes to go, benefiting from a three from MacKenzie Givens to get a 7-2 burst and get back within six with 64 seconds left. Xavier lets the possession play out for a moment, then commits the fouls that they need to send Marquette to the free throw line where Skylar Forbes makes both. It is an eight point game, 71-63, and Xavier head coach Billi Chambers calls timeout to advance the ball. Xavier clearly needs to hit threes to have a chance in this game, and they are 5-for-17 in that department.
Givens misses. Vice rebounds, Xavier fouls Lee Volker, I boo the Musketeers for fouling down eight with 33 seconds left. Volker makes them both, Marquette leads by 10, and Chambers calls her final timeout. I ask you: What precisely is she trying to accomplish here?
Noel misses a three, but the refs call a foul on Volker against Givens while the shot is in the air, I guess, and she makes both. 26 seconds left, Marquette inbounds up eight, XAVIER FOULS AGAIN, and I boo again. This is absolute garbage from the Musketeers and Chambers. Take your loss.
Volker makes them both, XU can’t call timeout again, Kanerva misses a three, Mason rebounds and hits Vice in transition for a 12 point lead, Marquette’s largest of the game, with 10 seconds left. What did you accomplish here, Billi Chambers? Other than doubling the margin you lost by from what it was with 60 seconds left?
Much like she did in Cincinnati, Halle Vice was the driving force for the Golden Eagles here. She finished with 22 points on 9-for-14 shooting, and added eight rebounds and three assists. Skylar Forbes added 19 points, seven rebounds, an assist, two blocks, and a a steal. Lee Volker had a 16/6/3 and two steals in her final regular season home game, and Kennedi Perkins had 10 points to go with five rebounds and four assists. Jaidynn Mason had a team high eight assists and honestly wasn’t that far off from an odd duck double-double since she had eight rebounds, too. Five turnovers too, more than a third of MU’s 14 on the night, but it’s a win, we’ll let it slide.
Highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+:
Up Next: Marquette’s regular season finale is coming up on Sunday afternoon. They’ll visit Providence for a 4:30pm Central time tipoff, and Peacock will have the broadcast. The Friars are 14-15 overall this season and 7-11 in Big East play after having a four game winning streak snapped by UConn back on the 22nd. They do have to visit Creighton on Thursday before hosting the Golden Eagles.
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