If you had told me that Marquette women’s basketball was going to lead Missouri State in Springfield on Friday night by double digits for large swaths of the game and by multiple possessions at the very least for nearly all of it while only getting four points, two rebounds, one assist, and one steal from Halle Vice, I would have landed somewhere between shouting “oh hell yeah” or “you’re a liar.” One of the two, I suspect. And so, we will declare Marquette’s 70-58 victory where they had a 14-0 run
in the first quarter and led by as many as 15 in the third quarter to be quite the accomplishment by the Golden Eagles for that reason.
However.
The How and Why as to Vice only contributing that much to this game goes along with why she only played 14 minutes. With about 2:20 to play in the second quarter, a missed layup by MacKenzie Givens bounces out towards the three-point line, and Vice turns to go after it and reaches for it with her right hand. There’s no contact from a Missouri State player, as the closest one is on her left. As she reaches out to corral the ball, Vice suddenly reaches across her body, grabs her right shoulder or bicep, and buckles to the ground. It took her a good long while to get up, and after a trip to the locker room, she returned with her arm in a sling and she did not play again in this game. Officially, in the MU recap, it is listed as a shoulder injury.
At the time, Marquette was already up 12. The margin would land at seven at halftime, Marquette up 34-27. The precise timing of Vice’s injury might have turned out to be not terrible, as head coach Cara Consuegra was able to gather her squad together at halftime as they were learning that Vice wouldn’t be returning on this night. Maybe that’s why MU put together a 7-0 run early in the third quarter to take a 15 point lead. Missouri State wouldn’t go away though, and they closed the half with a 14-6 run that cut the margin down to as little as five before Brooklyn Hall scored right before the end of the period.
In the fourth, Marquette couldn’t quite shake free of the Bears. Up 10, up six, up 10, up six, up 13, up eight. Thankfully, MU kept having answers for Missouri State’s answers, and they could just trade two buckets at a time and still come out ahead of MUs. That last up 8? That was with just 31 seconds left and Missouri State would not score again.
With Marquette winning by 12 and having that 14-0 run in the first quarter, you might be able to guess that this was actually a pretty close game other than that burst. That holds up in the Four Factors. Marquette and Missouri State were dead even in turnover rate with both teams coughing it up 18 times in the game. They were near perfect matches in offensive rebounding rate and free throw attempt rate. The difference? Marquette’s effective field goal percentage was north of 55% thanks to 6-for-16 shooting on three-pointers and 55% shooting on two-pointers. Missouri State? eFG% of just 42.7%, and you can see Marquette’s advantage here even before I say that the Bears shot 28% on three-pointers.
With Vice out for the entire second half, I think we can easily say that Marquete doesn’t win this game if MacKenzie Givens doesn’t go off for 23 points on 9-for-13 shooting. She also added four rebounds and two steals, and 16 of her 23 came in the second half after the Golden Eagles knew that they were working without Vice here.
Amina Traore came off the bench to lead Marquette with seven rebounds here, while Yu Han Lin’s three assists topped that column for the Golden Eagles. MU generated just nine assists on 27 makes in this game, so that’s something to work on for next time.
Up Next: That next time is rapidly approaching, especially as Vice’s status remains up in the air. Marquette will return to action on Tuesday when they head to Madison for a road contest against Wisconsin. Tipoff is set for 6:30pm Central on B1G+. The Badgers are 4-0 on the year after squeaking past Bradley at home in their opener and then walloping their next three buy game opponents. UW will visit Green Bay on Saturday afternoon before beginning preparations for Marquette.
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