Following impressive victories at home over Louisville and at Pittsburgh, the Golden Eagles tripped up momentarily against the Villanova Wildcats, who had no conference wins.

But they didn’t fall down.

Instead, Marquette came back from trailing by as many as seven in the first half and hung on to beat Villanova 62-57 Tuesday night.

Despite the Wildcats’ struggles, coach Terri Mitchell insisted the 8-13 record they left the Al McGuire Center with did not reflect their talent.

“They are extremely well-coached, fantastic shooters and the style they play is one that you have to take care of the ball,” Mitchell said.

Playing in the Big East, it is becoming more of a rarity every year that Marquette will have a pushover game and coast to the finish line.

“Every game we go into we have to think it’s just as important as the next,” senior forward Paige Fiedorowicz said. “You can’t think just because of (a team’s) record they can’t beat you. It’s the Big East. Anybody can beat anybody on any day.”

Grabbing the fourth place spot in the Big East hasn’t been easy for the Golden Eagles. Only two of Marquette’s six conference victories have come by double digits and it took a total of three overtimes to pick up two of their wins.

A big reason the Golden Eagles have been able to pick up those wins has been the emergence of key role players. In years past, senior guard Angel Robinson would have been asked to carry the team on her back every night.

While Robinson is still the unquestioned leader, other players have takne on bigger roles.

Take Tatiyiana McMorris, for example. The senior guard had notched career highs in points in Marquette’s past two wins, but struggled from beyond the arc Tuesday night, making just one of her five three-point attempts.

But there to pick up the slack for McMorris and senior guard Courtney Weibel, who didn’t attempt a shot in 13 foul-plagued minutes, was freshman forward Katherine Plouffe and Fiedorowicz, who combined for 28 of Marquette’s 62 points.

Robinson quietly posted 12 points and eight assists, but having other scorers besides her has kept Marquette in close contests.

“This year I think a lot of people have stepped up scoring-wise and she doesn’t have to have all that pressure on her back,” Fiedorowicz said. “We’ve got her back.”

Mitchell said Marquette’s standing in the top 25 may have surprised her team, but insists her players are now ready to go and fight in the Big East.

“Our theme is ‘hungry and humble’ and so whether or not we’re ranked, our mentality has to stay the same,” Mitchell said. “Now that we got that game under our belt I think we’re going to be absolutely fine.”

Plouffe said after the game that Marquette is looking at Tuesday night as the start to the second half of its season.

“Right now we’re looking at it as 1-0,” Plouffe said. “We’re just trying to do better than the first half, so we’re going to do better than 5-3.”

If the Golden Eagles can, in fact, play better than they did in the first half of the season, they won’t be exiting the top 25 any time soon.