I think it’s probably safe to say that Monday morning’s Marquette women’s basketball season opener against the visiting Winthrop Eagles was over pretty early. Not when Marquette was up 4-0 in the first
minute, no….. but up 12-2 just as the clock passed the five minute mark thanks to an 8-0 MU run?….. mmm, no, probably not. 11-0 capped by an Olivia Porter three-pointer, the fourth triple of the quarter for the Golden Eagles, making it 23-4 with 28 seconds left in the opening frame?
Yeah, that’ll do it.
A Bridget Utberg three-pointer at the 2:57 mark of the second quarter pushed the margin to 2-0 points for the first time, it was 21 at intermission, which matched Marquette’s largest lead of the game, and the lead crested to 30 points for the first time in a 10-0 midway through the third quarter. Halle Vice had the bucket to get to 30, late in a 10-0 run in the third quarter, a run that chewed nearly four minutes off the clock. Marquette led by as many as 34 in the third, and after a Charia Smith layup late in the quarter, the margin never went below 30 again. Jada Bediako gets the nod for creating Marquette’s biggest lead of the game, scoring with 3:18 left to extend the gap to 36 for the only time.
And yet.
It wasn’t a perfect 40 minutes from Marquette, even with an 89-57 victory, easily clearing the 25 point projected margin from BartTorvik.com heading into the season opener. From my season ticket holder reserved area behind the Marquette bench on Milwaukee Public Schools Day at the Al, head coach Cara Consuegra was in my vision every time the ball was on the north end of the court. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that she spent the less than 2 hours of elapsed time frustrated with her team, but she was definitely visibly bothered by missed assignments from possession to possession.
One of the things that’s probably going to come up on film review with the team? The fact that they were only up 21 at the half while shooting 61.5% on three-pointers. The big reason why things weren’t better than that while the Golden Eagles were blisteringly hot from long range? 14 first half turnovers, which works out to 36% of MU’s possessions turned into a thrown away ball. There were only seven turnovers in the second half, which lands Marquette at under 28% for the game…. but the Golden Eagles were bad at keeping track of the ball at over 23% last season. Something to keep an eye on, that’s for sure.
Jaidynn Mason was the star of the show on Monday, putting up a game high 25 points to lead the Golden Eagles in Game #1. She also had seven rebounds, five assists, and two steals. Skylar Forbes (19) and Halle Vice (10) both joined her in double digit town, and Vice recorded a double-double with 11 rebounds. Mason’s five assists were tied for a team high with both Forbes and Lee Volker, and, well, if Marquette’s going to get 27 assists on 31 makes this season, I like their chances.
Couple of quick notes before we wrap up: First, Jordan Meulemans shot 2-for-6 from long range, connecting on the middle two of her tries, both in the third quarter. 33.3% is just fine as a start for her season, especially when the team as a whole connected on 11 of their first 18 long range attempts…. and missed the final 12 of the game. Second, freshman JJ Barnes was on crutches here, and Ben Steele over at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel confirmed that the knee injury suffered at the open practice in early October will keep her out for the entire season. Finally, Abbey Cracknell got yanked to the ground after just one minute of action, and the weird angle of it all caused her to grimace and grab her knee right away. She got up under her own power and walked off, but she didn’t return and even at the end of the game, she was walking with a limp. I think it’s safe to say that precautions will keep her out of Marquette’s next game……
Up Next: …. which will be on Saturday afternoon against Wisconsin. The Badgers will be coming to the McGuire Center for a 2pm start on November 8th, and ESPN+ will have the broadcast. Wisconsin won’t start their season until Wednesday night when they host Oakland for the first game of Robin Pingeton’s tenure as head coach.
