The Marquette women’s basketball team rebounded from their first loss of the season with a 64-50 win over Iona College Wednesday.

Sophomore forward Sarina Simmons picked up a double-double with a career-high 17 rebounds and 10 points to lead the Golden Eagles over the outmatched Gaels.

“Our emphasis was to crash the boards and protect the paint,” Simmons said. “That was my focus and it worked well for the most part.”

Senior forward Paige Fiedorowicz also chipped in 14 points and five rebounds for Marquette.

The first ten minutes were closer than the Golden Eagles would’ve liked. Marquette held a 16-11 lead halfway through the first half and the offense looked sluggish with four early turnovers.

The Golden Eagles responded to the slow start with a 12-0 run to put some distance between themselves and Iona. The offense went to work and closed out the half with a 37-22 lead thanks to two consecutive three-pointers by senior guard Courtney Weibel.

Weibel was lights out in the first half connecting on four of her five three point attempts in thirteen minutes of play.

Marquette never let Iona back into the game in the second half and capitalized on the Gael’s frustration. The visitors committed an astonishing eight fouls in five minutes to put the Golden Eagles into the bonus with much of the game left to play.

The frontcourt outrebounded Iona 47-32 overall and put up 28 points in the paint. Marquette controlled the boards despite the absence of standout senior forward Jasmine Collins, who went down with an injury against Wisconsin and is expected to miss four weeks.

The guards played well also setting up 14 fast break points and recording 15 steals including eight from senior guard Angel Robinson who left with pain in her left elbow late in the game.

Coach Terri Mitchell was not pleased with her teams 24 turnovers and knows that they must continue to grow with each nonconference game to get ready for Big East play.

“I felt we weren’t the smartest we needed to be,” Mitchell said. “We need to identify and get better as individuals moving forward into the rest of the season.”

The Golden Eagles will travel to Vermont for a Saturday afternoon matchup with the Catamounts before they open conference play against Connecticut next Thursday.