The Marquette women's basketball team didn't have much time to take in the scenery and enjoy the view from the top.

After rising to a tie for first place in Conference USA on Saturday with a 75-61 victory at East Carolina and a DePaul loss at Charlotte, the Golden Eagles fell from their perch two days later.

Monday night they missed the shots they needed to make and made the shots they could have afforded to miss in a 59-56 to the Charlotte 49ers.

After trailing by 10 points with 9:48 to play in the game, Marquette had multiple opportunities to tie the game and send it into overtime.

With 27 seconds to play sophomore guard Carolyn Kieger hit a three pointer to close the gap to 56-54.

Two seconds later Charlotte's Monica League missed the front end of her one-and-one, but with 13 seconds to play Marquette's Katie O'Grady did the same thing.

After Andrea Davidson increased the 49ers' lead to 57-54 by hitting one free throw, Danielle Kamm was fouled while attempting a three pointer and went to the free-throw line with a chance to tie the game.

Kamm missed her first free throw, made her second one, and attempted to miss her third shot so Marquette (16-4, 6-2 C-USA) could get the rebound; however, it banked in.

Monica League hit two free throws with three seconds to play to seal the victory for the 49ers.

"One thing I know for sure is this team will always fight to the end. Even down 10 I knew we would fight back," said Marquette head coach Terri Mitchell. "We had every opportunity to put the game into overtime but couldn't."

One of the reasons for that was the Marquette's inability to take care of the ball.

Marquette turned the ball over 26 times. Kieger had five turnovers while Kamm, and seniors Kelly Schwerman and Crystal Weaver each had four.

"Charlotte is a great defensive team and they applied a lot of pressure," O'Grady said. "The turnovers are uncharacteristic of us."

Marquette's defensive play to start the second half was also out of character. The 49ers went on a 14-4 run to start the second half to build a 41-32 lead with 16:03 to play.

That couldn't be more different than what happened against the East Carolina Lady Pirates two nights earlier.

At the start of the second half on Saturday, Marquette led 37-29; 16 minutes later they still were ahead by eight points, but during that time span the Golden Eagles only made five field goals.

However, that was balanced out by Marquette holding the Lady Pirates to 7-for-29 shooting from the floor over the same period of time.

"We were all focusing on defense," Weaver said. "… Defense is mostly heart. We take pride in stopping them from scoring and helping (our teammates) if they get beat."

Another reason that East Carolina never got within more than six points during that span was Marquette was 12-for-14 from the free-throw line during the first 16 minutes of the second half.

"(Free throws) are something we take pride in," said senior guard Kelly Schwerman. "We want to make the easy shots, free throws and layups, because they can be the difference in the game."

For the game the Golden Eagles held the Lady Pirates to a 32.8 percent field goal percentage and converted 22 of their 26 free throw attempts. Marquette received a substantial amount of scoring from Weaver and Schwerman, who had 16 points each. For Weaver 10 of those points came in the first six minutes when she helped the Golden Eagles jump out to a 14-10 lead.