The Marquette women's basketball team could not have asked for a better start against the College of William & Mary Monday night. Marquette forced four turnovers before its opponent even got a shot off, and the Golden Eagles held a 22-3 lead just seven minutes into the game.

Thanks to 14 forced turnovers in the first half, Marquette had outscored William & Mary 22-6 in the paint.

Marquette played a full-court press for much of the game and forced 26 turnovers, creating a potent fast break attack that led to easy shots.

"I think a lot of it was just we were reversing the ball quickly and it was just open layups and open shots," freshman Paige Fiedorowicz said.

Fiedorowicz scored a career-high 17 points on 8-11 shooting.

The easy buckets kept coming in the second half as the Golden Eagles went on to score 46 of their 79 points inside the paint.

William & Mary took a much different approach to the game. It relied on the three-point shot to stay on Marquette's heels. The Tribe kept it close for a while by going 9-of-19 from behind the arc, but in the end, Marquette's inside presence was just too much.

William & Mary used six threes in the first half to cool off Marquette's hot start, and trailed by just eight at the end of the first half.

"We got tentative," Marquette head coach Terri Mitchell said. "We lost the focus of getting the ball inside, and once we refocused them at halftime I think we were okay."

Marquette closed the game on an 18-8 run in the final five minutes after their offense looked stagnant for much of the second half.

"The defense has to come first," Mitchell said. "You've got to buckle down defense to get your offense back, not the opposite way around."

Another spark for Marquette in the second half was the play of junior forward Marissa Thrower. Thrower had a team-high 19 points, 15 of which came in the second half.

"My teammates were finding me," Thrower said. "They knew that my shot was falling so it was just really unselfish of them."

Thrower was 7-of-14 from the field while not attempting a single three-pointer for the first time this season.

Marquette struggled from the three-point line, going just 3-of-15 for the game, which made its post play all the more crucial.

With so many easy buckets, the Golden Eagles were able to spread out the scoring. Five players contributed at least eight points, and Marquette dished out a season-high 24 assists as a team.

"It's easy to rely on one person who has the experience … Now we're having to lean on other people to be scorers," Mitchell said. "If we can have four people in double figures every game, or close to double figures, we'll be a hard team to scout."

Marquette out-rebounded William & Mary 46-28, leading to a 22-6 advantage in second chance points.

Easy buckets were plentiful on this night, but Marquette was just 14-of-24 from the easiest spot of all—the free throw line.