The bad times started with 3:47 left in the first quarter on Saturday afternoon at the McGuire Center. Before that, Marquette had an 8-7 lead on Wisconsin, and that’s just good old fashioned healthy back and forth basketball. But at the 3:47 mark, that’s when Wisconsin kicked off a 10-0 to jump out to a 17-8 lead. It was 20-12 at the end of the first quarter, and with 3:20 left in the second frame, a bucket from UW’s Gift Uchenna had the visitors up 31-21.
Then things got worse, as in “stop the game
while we deal with this” worse. Kennedi Perkins got into the lane for the Golden Eagles, but couldn’t connect on her layup attempt, and as she landed, she went to the floor, and it appeared that she cracked the back of her head on Breauna Ware’s knee. Perkins stayed down, covered up, and play continued with her mostly motionless on the floor, all the way until Halle Vice blocked a three-pointer out of bounds on the other end.
It took 11 minutes to get Perkins in a neck brace, on a backboard, on a stretcher, escorted out of the arena for medical attention, and for play to resume, at least according to my Bluesky post timestamps. At this time, now several hours later, I don’t have even a rumored medical update for you on her.
Marquette mounted a small rally as the quarter wound to its conclusion, but it was still a seven point game at halftime. MU slashed it to four coming out of the locker room, watching Wisconsin balloon the lead back to nine, and ultimately, with both teams scoring nine points in the period, it was still a seven point UW lead with 10 minutes left in regulation.
At this point of the game, Skylar Forbes was 0-for-3 from the field. She had one rebound and two assists, and she had a free throw go down in the second quarter. You don’t necessarily want to attribute “this is going super poorly” to any one player having a bad night, but Wisconsin had Forbes on lockdown for 30 minutes.
The fourth quarter chugged along, and Marquette couldn’t get closer than four points. Marquette scored, Wisconsin scored. Trading points back and forth. Lee Volker scored in transition to finally cut it to two with 6:22 to go, but Wisconsin answered with back-to-back buckets. Free throws from Volker, but four straight from Wisconsin, and the lead was eight with 2:38 to go.
Lookin’ prrrrrrrrretty dire there, Marquette.
A three from Forbes cut it to five and brought her up to seven points in the quarter. You see what’s happening here, right? A layup from Vice. A bucket from Forbes — that’s nine — and it’s somehow a one point game with 48 seconds left.
Wisconsin was incentivized to burn off clock, so they did, right up until Jaidynn Mason picked Ronnie Porter’s pocket…. and Porter reached out and grabbed Mason’s jersey as she took off. Whistle, and MU head coach Cara Consuegra was not exactly thrilled with the idea that this was just going to be a common foul. Video review…. upgraded to a flagrant 1 for a clear path foul. Two shots and the ball, and anyone can shoot the flagrants. Forbes makes two, that’s 11. Inbounds goes to Forbes, she splits a pair — that’s 12 — and Marquette, somehow, inexplicably, is up two with 18 seconds left.
Alas, they could not get the one more stop that they needed, Kyrah Daniels got a stickback, Forbes got jammed up at the rim to win it, and so five more minutes were needed.
A traveling call on the Badgers led to — of course — Skylar Forbes getting to the rack — that’s 14 — and MU has the advantage. No one can score, clock drifts away, chances for both squads coming up empty, mistakes by UW squandered by Marquette, and with 38 seconds left, Daniels got to the rim to tie the game.
And then, this:
17. 17 points in the final 15 minutes. Actually, it’s 18, because she slipped one more free throw in before the final horn. 18 of her 19 points in the game when things really got worrisome for the Golden Eagles, including all six of MU’s points in the overtime session.
This game is not going to go in the books as a perfect example of what Cara Consuegra wants her team to look like. Not with just 0.83 points per possession on the offensive end and a turnover rate north of 25%. Not in the slightest. But when Consuegra says “play with heart,” both the acrostic version of that word and its more literal definition? Then the final 15 minutes is exactly what she means.
Skylar Forbes led all scorers here with 19 points. Halle Vice fell one bucket short of her second straight double double this season with eight points and 14 rebounds. Forbes of all people ended up leading Marquette in assists with four, and her three blocks were pretty crucial as well.
How about some highlights, with Karley & Chloe Marotta on the call, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+?
Up Next: Marquette will be packing their bags for their next game as they hit the road for the first time this season. On Tuesday, November 11, they’ll be up in the Twin Cities for a game with Minnesota. Tipoff is set for 7pm Central, and B1G+ will have the streaming broadcast. The Golden Gophers are 2-0 this season and they were earning AP top 25 votes in the preseason poll.
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