Before the start of the 2007-'08 season, Marquette women's basketball coach Terri Mitchell stressed how important balance would be to her team's success.
On Saturday, the Golden Eagles defeated the No. 25 Wisconsin Badgers 67-53 with junior Krystal Ellis leading the way, scoring 31 points on 10 of 20 shooting.
"Krystal Ellis did an incredible job of leading. She was ready," Mitchell said. "Not that we need her to score 31, but we'll sure take it when she does."
Ellis dominated throughout the game but in the first half she was electric, scoring 21 points while sinking three three-pointers.
"Anybody at anytime can shoot the ball, but I feel like this game I was on, so the team kept getting me open so I got to shoot a lot more," Ellis said.
No one besides Ellis had more than eight field goal attempts for the Golden Eagles.
After shooting 48.3 percent from the field in the first half, the Golden Eagles' offense sputtered, shooting just 20 percent in the second half. Marquette made up for its offensive ineptitude by forcing 29 turnovers throughout the game and scoring 25 points off of those turnovers.
"In the second half we didn't shoot great, but we only had one turnover so we could keep running, keep running, keep pushing it," Mitchell said.
Wisconsin entered the game coming off an 82-62 win over Cleveland State, led by pre-season Big Ten player of the year Jolene Anderson's 37 points. Against Marquette, Anderson scored just 21 points.
Wisconsin head coach Lisa Stone gave credit to Marquette for the victory but also said her team just committed too many turnovers to win the game.
"This is a game that we'll learn a lot from," Stone said. "This game here is one that I felt our team was prepared in terms of defending…unfortunately our impatience turned into hurried shots, hurried passes and therefore the turnovers."
Marquette has been receiving votes in both the Associated Press Top-25 and ESPN/USA Today Top-25, but Mitchell knows there is still work to do.
"It's very early in the season but obviously to play such an experienced team like Wisconsin and come out with a victory is a very good sign of where this team is going," she said. "We just want to go play and get better."