The women’s basketball regular season ended last Saturday night in a loss to DePaul, 64-54. The team came into the year with hopes of receiving an invite to the NCAA Tournament, but it’ll have to settle for a likely invite to the WNIT.
The team had a fair showing in the Big East Tournament by winning the game it was supposed to win against Villanova in the first round 53-49 but fell to DePaul in the second to end its regular season.
Senior guard Lauren Thomas-Johnson said the season didn’t go as well as the team had hoped, but that many lessons were learned that should help them be successful in the WNIT.
After the early season cupcake games and the Caribbean Challenge, the team (16-15, 6-10 Big East) started off the year 9-4 but subsequently lost eight of its next 11 games, including 1-6 in February. Junior guard Angel Robinson said the difference between beginning and end of the season was attitude.
“The biggest difference was that we were winning at the beginning of the season, and when you’re winning you’re having fun,” Robinson said. “Once it got to the end of the season, we got into closer games and the pressure was on. Once we started losing, we got into a hole and tried to get out of it. We hit a drought at a bad time of the year.”
In one of the team’s first thirteen games, Robinson recorded the school’s first triple-double with her Nov. 21 performance in a 79-62 victory over Oakland at home. She had 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
Robinson said she hadn’t thought about the triple-double all year, but still takes pride in the accomplishment.
“Obviously it’s a big deal,” Robinson said. “That’s a good individual accolade, especially to go down in Marquette history.”
The team also lost sophomore forward Georgie Jones after just six games. Jones announced her plan to leave the program for personal reasons shortly before the Dec. 3 game against the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
“It hurt us as a team, because we’re such a close team this year,” Thomas-Johnson said. “It was like losing a sister, and losing a sister hurt us mentally as well as in the games.”
At 9-4, everything was moving in the right direction. And then Big East play started.
“On any given day anyone can beat anybody,” Harris said of the conference. “It’s tough, very physical and there are a lot of big girls. It’s just a very competitive conference.”
Through its first eight Big East games, the team was 4-4. One of those victories came against the then-No. 15 Georgetown Hoyas on Jan. 27. The Golden Eagles knocked off the Hoyas 52-45 and snapped the Hoyas’ 16-game winning streak. The Hoyas hadn’t lost since Nov. 20 against Dayton.
Thomas-Johnson said it was a huge accomplishment.
“People didn’t even think we had a chance during that game,” she said. “We came out and proved to a lot of people the fight that Marquette really has. I think that showed a lot of teams that they couldn’t take us lightly.”
Marquette still has one more shot for redemption with its likely participation in the WNIT.
“We’re going into the NIT to win,” Thomas-Johnson said. “I think that’ll bring the season up. That’s what everyone wants, that’s what we’re all talking about.”
