Four times this season the Marquette women’s basketball team has been defeated. All four times, it has come back even stronger and answered with an impressive victory.
Look no further than Wednesday night for evidence of that, when the Golden Eagles took down the Louisville Cardinals 76-65 at the Al McGuire Center.
The Golden Eagles (16-4, 4-3 Big East) were led by senior Tatiyiana McMorris, who scored 21 points on 5-of-9 three pointers, and senior Angel Robinson, who put together a solid performance with 16 points, eight assists and five rebounds. Sophomore forward Sarina Simmons added a career-high six assists and freshman Katherine Plouffe had 13 points.
The win came four days after coach Terri Mitchell and the Golden Eagles let a 12-point, second half lead slip right through their fingers in a 69-63 loss against Syracuse.
But just as they have done all season, the Golden Eagles took the loss and turned it into a positive, coming out and making a statement in their next performance.
After falling at Creighton over Thanksgiving break, Marquette returned home and beat Iona by 14. A loss to No. 1 Connecticut in early December was followed with a 63-60 Marquette win over No. 17 Green Bay.
And after a blowout loss at home to Notre Dame, the Golden Eagles put together one of their best performances all year just three days later, a 75-73, double-overtime victory at Georgetown.
Senior Paige Fiedorowicz, who finished with 14 points and five rebounds, said tough practices and taking lessons from losses has helped the Golden Eagles.
“Everybody on our team fights and works really hard in practice,” Fiedorowicz said. “I think from the losses we’ve had, we just need to learn to bounce back strong and I think we’ve been doing a really good job of that.”
For Mitchell, the ability to come back strong after losses begins and ends with her six seniors and the commitment they made in the summer.
“It starts with our seniors,” Mitchell said after the win. “They drew that line in the sand when the season started that they were going to be special this year.”
“Special” is exactly what the Golden Eagles have been this season. With three wins over top-25 teams and 16 wins in 20 tries, Marquette is right where they want to be.
Lately, it has been the defense that has stepped up in the clutch. Wednesday night, Louisville shot just 41.4 percent from the field and scored just 65 points, 12 below its season average. Freshman sharpshooter Shoni Schimmel made just six of her 18 three-point attempts, causing her to struggled until well into the second half.
“Every game we play in the Big East is going to be a battle,” Mitchell said. “We knew (Louisville would) make a run at us but when they did, we just held our ground defensively and got the stops we needed.”
Feidorowicz, the team’s third leading scorer, echoed the comments of her coach.
“Playing in the Big East is tough,” Fiedorowicz said. “After a loss you can’t just hang your head, you need to come back stronger the next game.”
To this point, that’s exactly what the Golden Eagles have done.