The Marquette women's basketball team took more than a page from the men's team in regards to its WNIT fate. It stole the whole book.

Disastrous three-point shooting and an obvious lack of energy — some of the same things that doomed the men in their first-round loss to Western Michigan — eventually led to a 66-57 defeat at the hands of Nebraska at the Al McGuire Center March 17.

The most telling statistic of the night was Marquette's 2-20 three-point shooting.

"That's the difference when you look at the stat sheet," head coach Terri Mitchell said. "We took what came to us. We just didn't knock them down."

The only time it looked like Marquette might challenge Nebraska was in the final two minutes, when senior guard Lesley Juedes hit her team's only two three-pointers.

The Huskers took an 11-point lead into halftime and were able to push it to 16 with 4:57 remaining. The teams traded trips to the free throw line until Juedes took a pass from junior guard Carolyn Kieger and knocked down Marquette's first three-pointer of the game to make it 65-54.

A mere 33 seconds later, junior forward Efueko Osagie stole the ball and passed to Juedes who made another three to cut the lead to nine at 66-57.

It looked like a spectacular comeback was in order when Nebraska junior forward Ivana Drmanac missed both of her free throw attempts on the next possession, giving the ball back to Marquette. Sophomore center Christina Quaye grabbed the second miss and immediately looked down court for the streaking Juedes, but instead threw the ball — and the game — away when her pass went long and out of bounds.

It seemed as if two different Marquette teams played in the second half: one for the first 18 minutes and another for the last two. But Mitchell held a different perspective and insisted that the team gave everything it could.

"I think we play hard all the time," Mitchell said. "Do I think they started the half not wanting to play defense? No."

There was no debating how much the Golden Eagle's poor shooting hurt them, however.

"It was just not their night," said Nebraska sophomore guard Kiera Hardy, who led the Huskers with 21 points. "I guarantee if it was another night (those shots) would go down."

Nebraska head coach Connie Yori did feel like her team held the upper hand in the intensity category.

"Our players played like we wanted to win this tournament," Yori said. "It comes down to who really wanted to play."

Nebraska lost to Iowa, 71-67, in the next round of the WNIT March 21.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on March 31 2005.