“We’re definitely going to look to improve from DePaul,” senior guard Angel Robinson said. “That was a tough loss for us. They are a good team, and they threw us off.”
On Saturday, the Golden Eagles were leading 29-26 at halftime, before turnovers — 23 for the game — and poor thee-point shooting — 3-of-14 for the game — allowed DePaul to take over in the second half.
“I think we didn’t have our best basketball out there against DePaul,” Robinson said. “Just not playing real good team ball. We got out of sync with our offense.”
Now the No. 22 Golden Eagles look to correct those mistakes and get back to winning against Seton Hall, which is second-to-last in the Big East and only recently got its first conference win when it won 51-44 at Cincinnati on Saturday.
Robinson said despite Seton Hall’s unimpressive record, this game is “still an important” one.
“Throughout the year, you have to play well and win important games,” Robinson said. “These teams may not be expected to beat us, but that makes it more important to win because if you lose, that will hurt you when you are heading into the tournament.”
Though Marquette plays Rutgers (14-10, 7-4 Big East), one of two teams the Golden Eagles are tied for fifth place with, on Saturday, they will not be looking past the Seton Hall game by any means — especially since it’s on the road.
“It’s definitely tougher to win on the road,” senior forward Paige Fiedorowicz said. “When you’re at home you have your home court, your home fans and that gives you extra momentum, and it definitely gets tough when you have to play in another building. Any Big East team can win on any given day, and it is important for us to bring that extra toughness that it takes to win away from home.”
One Golden Eagle who will especially be looking to redeem herself from Saturday is senior guard Tatiyiana McMorris. McMorris, who is having the best season of her career, only scored 11 points against DePaul, four below her average for conference play. She also led the team with six turnovers.
“Her shots weren’t falling on Saturday, and she had a couple turnovers,” senior guard Courtney Weibel said. “We’re not worried about her at all though, she just needs to be herself, and she’ll be fine.”
With a top-25 ranking and only five regular season games left, three of which are on the road, Marquette can smell an NCAA Tournament berth, its first in four years. Fiedorowicz stressed that if the NCAA Tournament is in Marquette’s future, it must win games down the stretch.
“It would be very nice to win out and get a good seed,” Fiedorowicz said. “The more wins we get, the better chance we have of getting a higher seed. We get to play DePaul again, and it would be nice to go 1-1 with them, but I think that we have the best shot if we win out.”
