I’m going to keep this preview for the final home game on the Marquette women’s basketball schedule pretty straight forward.
First, it’s Senior Day at the McGuire Center. Marquette will be honoring seven of the eight seniors listed on the roster in a pregame ceremony as they appear for their final regular season home game. The lone exception to the list is Aryelle Stevens who has been out all year after an Achilles tear last summer. Marquette isn’t explicitly saying she’s returning, merely not saying she’s departing.
With seven senior players and five student managers to honor, get yourself to the building early for the festivities.
Second, Marquette is on a four game losing streak. They shouldn’t be after coughing up a fourth quarter lead at Creighton and letting Seton Hall rally and run away from them in Milwaukee, but that’s where we are. Perhaps more disappointingly, Marquette looked lifeless on the road against Villanova on Sunday after putting up a pretty solid fight against #1 UConn in the third of the four straight losses.
Third, Marquette is trying to stay out of the opening day tripleheader at the Big East tournament. Some of this work may get done for them as 11-8 St. John’s wraps up with UConn, so all the Golden Eagles need to do is avoid dropping either of their final two games, and they will finish ahead of the Red Storm. That alone would be enough to clinch a top five finish in the Big East, as sixth place Creighton already has nine losses with two games to play.
Fourth, Marquette is a heavy favorite in their final home game of the year because Xavier is bad. BartTorvik.com says Golden Eagles by 17, 69-52. Part of that is because Marquette beat Xavier 67-54 in Cincinnati on New Year’s Day, and the Golden Eagles did that without Skylar Forbes available. It took a 20/19/5/2 from Halle Vice, but Marquette pushed it across the finish line and led by double digits for the entire second half. The Musketeers have lost nine of their last 10, and their assorted metrics have been getting worse across their current five game losing streak.
There is zero reason why Marquette should lose this game. Everything points at reasons for Marquette to be motivated to 1) win on Senior Night, 2) win to lock up a bye to the quarterfinals, 3) win to snap their losing streak, and 4) beat a bad Xavier team.
Now they just have to do it.
Big East Game #19: vs Xavier Musketeers (11-16, 4-14 Big East)
Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Time: 6:30pm Central
Location: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: ESPN+ with Bob Brainerd and Chloe Marotta calling the action
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 26-7 all time against Xavier. The series started back in 1985 and was pretty even through the first nine encounters. The Musketeers won three of the first five meetings between the two teams once XU joined the Big East, but the Golden Eagles have now won 19 straight in the series, after a shorthanded 67-54 win in Cincinnati on New Year’s Day.
