With 84 wins in four seasons behind them, Marquette's four seniors wanted one more so badly Saturday night that head coach Terri Mitchell said they were letting their emotions get the best of them early on.
"We got ahead of ourselves," she said. "We were just incredibly tight."
Once they found a way to loosen up, Christina Quaye and her fellow seniors made sure their last outing on the Al McGuire Center court ended in No. 85. Quaye scored 26 points, and Efueko Osagie-Landry scored 12 and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Golden Eagles to a 75-63 win over South Florida in their final home game of the season.
Sophomore Krystal Ellis added 21 points for Marquette (23-5, 11-4 Big East), which registered a program-record 23rd victory on the year and clinched a first-round bye in the conference tournament.
With 51.7 seconds to play and the win in hand, Quaye, Danielle Kamm, Jasmine McCullough and Osagie-Landry left the game to a standing ovation from the crowd, each embracing head coach Terri Mitchell as they headed to the bench. Kamm scored seven points and was 3-for-5 from the floor. McCullough added just two, but handed out a team-high five assists.
Down 15 late in the first half, the Golden Eagles used defensive intensity to climb back into the game. Ellis recorded four steals on the night, and Osagie-Landry had two to go along with three blocked shots. Marquette forced nine of South Florida's 14 turnovers in the second half.
"We needed to take a deep breath and just have fun," Osagie-Landry said.
Mitchell credited Osagie-Landry's attitude in the locker room at the break for helping turn things around.
"Our team, when they saw (Osagie-Landry), it just changed everyone," she said. "But that's her all the time – she's the spark."
Shantia Grace led South Florida with 23 points on 7-of-19 shooting, but did not score in the second half until nearly 14 minutes had gone by. Nalini Miller added 12 for the Bulls (18-10, 8-7), who have dropped five of six to fall into the middle of the pack in the Big East.
South Florida took a 40-30 lead into the locker room at halftime, thanks largely to the torrid outside shooting of Grace (5-for-7 from beyond the arc in the first half) and Jessica Dickson (3-for-4).
For much of the half, Grace seemed to answer every Marquette basket with a three, drilling one of them over the outstretch hand – and five-inch height advantage – of sophomore Erin Monfre. Grace finished the half with 17 points.
Marquette tried to answer by pounding the ball inside, but had trouble getting it past the Bulls' defense. An active South Florida defense picked off a number entry passes and deflected several more out of bounds.
When the Golden Eagles did manage to work the ball into the post, they knew what to do with it, scoring 16 points in the paint in the first half and 32 on the night.
Both Marquette (12-for-24) and South Florida (16-for-31) finished the first half shooting 50 percent or better from the field.