You don’t need to be great for 40 minutes to blow a team out, you just need to be great for stretches at a time.
Take Marquette women’s basketball on Sunday afternoon at the McGuire Center. They were down
10-7 to Butler with 4:53 to play in the first quarter. Then they led 19-14 at the end of the period. Why? Because they went on a 10-0 run in a little over two minutes to go up 17-10 for a moment there.
Then, in the second quarter, Addison Baxter plunked in a three-pointer to pull the visiting Bulldogs within two points, 25-23. Still anyone’s ball game…. right up until Marquette ended the quarter on a 16-2 run. Seven in a row in about 90 seconds, then they held Butler without a point at all for the final 4:43 of the first half. It wasn’t 100% great basketball by Marquette for 20 minutes, but it was super for about nine minutes, and so they went into the half up 16.
Butler made things interesting in the third quarter, using an 8-2 run to slash the margin down to just 11 after the Golden Eagles briefly flirted with the idea of kicking it up over 20 early in the frame. With 3:32 to go in the quarter, Caroline Dotsey sank a three to cut the lead to just 10, 53-43, and things were not super great. Both teams managed just one basket the rest of the way, but it’s MU with the edge, shutting out the Bulldogs while getting a triple from Jordan Meulemans.
I know, you’re saying, hey, wait, the headline says Marquette by 25? SURE DOES.
Jaidynn Mason opened the final frame with a three, and that was one of five triples in the period for Marquette. A 7-0 run in the middle of the quarter finally got the margin up above 20, and back-to-back threes from Olivia Porter got things up to 27 before a freebie from Lee Volker got the Golden Eagles to their largest margin of the game with 1:39 to play. At that point, MU had outscored BU 22-7 in the fourth quarter. That’s how you end up winning by 25 when you go into the final 10 minutes up just 13.
Nine outstanding first half minutes, 8:30 of great basketball in the fourth quarter, 17 total minutes of ripping Butler apart at the seams, 48-9. Marquette is now 2-0 in the Big East, and that’s with a pair of 20+ point wins.
Skylar Forbes was your top scorer here, going for 26 points, tying her career high, and adding eight rebounds, a career best six assists, and a block. Also 5 turnovers, which we have to mention because she has a turnover problem, but it didn’t really impact the outcome here. Halle Vice just missed a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds, Lee Volker chipped in 14, and Olivia Porter got to 11 to help out, too. Not quite an MVP performance, but Jaidynn Mason’s 7/3/7 and two steals had a big impact.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+?
Up Next: A week off! That’s what Finals Week gets you around here, and Marquette will actually get nine days in between Big East games. In the meantime, they’ll get back in action next week Sunday with a home date against Le Moyne. Tipoff on ESPN+ is scheduled for 1pm Central. The Dolphins are 1-7 on the year right now after a 66-57 loss at home against St. Bonaventure on Saturday, and they won’t play again until they see MU. By the way, the Big East game looming in the future for Marquette? A visit to UConn.
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