Krystal Ellis led the Golden Eagles with 16 points, 10 of which came in the second half. Senior Erin Monfre also continued to play well, finishing with nine points.,”The Marquette women's basketball team kept its NCAA tournament hopes alive today with a 69-56 victory over St. John's at the Al McGuire Center.

Krystal Ellis led the Golden Eagles with 16 points, 10 of which came in the second half. Senior Erin Monfre also continued to play well, finishing with nine points. Monfre has now hit 12 three-pointers in Marquette's last three games.

"It's just stepping up, showing that confidence, and just knocking them down when I'm open," Monfre said.

At the start of the game St. John's came out firing and jumped out to an 8-0 lead behind two three-pointers from Kelly McMammon.

"At the start of each half, the first four minutes, we didn't come out the way we should so (coach) was kind of on us for that," Monfre said.

After the poor start Marquette used a balanced attack to outscore St. John's 31-12 the rest of the half. Marquette finished the game with four players in double figures.

"We distributed the ball well, looking for each other to score.and that's a great attack for us to take down the stretch," head coach Terri Mitchell said.

St. John's started the second half with another 8-0 run, but Marquette was too hot to handle, shooting 56.5% from the field after the intermission.

With the win Marquette improves its record to 16-11 (7-6 Big East), thus keeping its postseason hopes alive with three conference games to go. Mitchell has preached to her team that Marquette's current six game stretch is a mini-season in which the team's fate will be decided.

"This is my senior year, this is it," Monfre said. "We talk about this new season, this next couple of games, and we're 3-0 in our new season."

The Golden Eagles will have a few chances to prove itself to the selection committee when they face Providence and DePaul on the road before wrapping up its conference season at home against Louisville.

"We have the talent, we have the ability, we're playing in the conference to showcase that, but nothing's easy and so we have a lot of fight and a lot of urgency in us now," Mitchell said.

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