The Marquette women’s basketball team rolled over Division III Beloit 102-30 in its final exhibition game before opening the regular season on Saturday.
“We just wanted to build upon our game against Stout,” coach Terri Mitchell said. “Our offense was still fine but we wanted to get better defensively so I thought we took steps forward on defense.”
The Golden Eagles used their quickness to loot the Buccaneers tallying 26 steals and converting 40 turnovers into 60 points.
Not only was Marquette much quicker than Beloit, it was much taller as well, using that height advantage to out-rebound the Buccaneers 39-22.
Five Marquette players scored in double figures, with senior Lauren Thomas-Johnson leading the way with 19 points.
“I wasn’t thinking about myself, just thinking about the team and I think that really helped me,” Thomas-Johnson said. “I was just running the floor, really that’s where I got all my points. Angel was just throwing that sucker to me and I was hitting all my shots.”
Freshman Sarina Simmons impressed once again scoring 13 points while gathering six rebounds and six steals in only 19 minutes.
“After the first game, I was real successful, but I still had to kind of pick it up,” Simmons said. “I had to keep going and use that momentum in the second game.”
Two minutes into the match, Beloit had held Marquette scoreless and it looked as if it would be a tightly contested match. A Jessica Pachko lay-in put the Golden Eagles on the board and got the offense up and running.
The Marquette offense went into full swing as substitute, junior Courtney Weibel hit back-to-back threes to put Marquette up 14-6 and ignite a 31-0 run.
Marquette was simply too athletic in the first half pushing the tempo every opportunity they had. The Golden Eagles had 25 fast break points in the first half compared to five by the Buccaneers and led 56-15.
Pachko once again opened the scoring in the second half using her height to go right over the defense for a lay-up.
Beloit’s Amanda Moore hit back-to-back threes with 14 minutes left in the second half, forcing Mitchell to call a timeout. Although Marquette was still up 72-26 at the time, she didn’t want the team to become complacent.
Marquette was able to hold Beloit at 28 points for over 10 minutes in the second half, scoring 23 points in the meantime.
Tatiyiana McMorris led the way in the second half with 14 points and four 3-pointers. Her five 3-pointers in the match were a career high.