Down two points with just 6.4 seconds left, sophomore guard Brooklyn Pumroy caught an inbound pass and sprinted up the court. Pumroy dished a pass to senior guard Katie Young on the left wing. Young’s three point attempt bounced off the rim and the Golden Eagles fell to St. John’s, 49-47.
Coach Terri Mitchell said it was a play the team practices often, but the execution wasn’t the same.
“Katie took it, which I’m happy she took it, but I still don’t think there was anything aggressive about it,” Mitchell said. “We need to play more aggressive and when we practice that, we’re much more aggressive of going to the hoop. I thought we backed off.”
Young’s missed three pointer was a common theme for the Golden Eagles. Marquette (12-4, 3-2) shot a mere 7.1 percent from behind the three-point line. Marquette’s only three-pointer came from the hands of senior Katherine Plouffe with 55.9 seconds left in the game to pull the team within one.
Marquette had a chance to take the lead and possibly the game before Young’s shot. With 35 seconds left, Pumroy was sent to the free throw line. She missed both her free-throws, but Plouffe pulled down the offensive rebound. However, Plouffe turned the ball over, forcing Marquette to foul, which gave St. John’s a big enough lead to close out the game. With the win, the Red Storm moved into first place in the Big East, while Marquette dropped to fourth.
Just like their three-point shooting, the Golden Eagles did not hold onto the ball. In the first half alone, the Golden Eagles had 15 turnovers. By the end of the game, Marquette had 25, the highest turnover mark of the season. These turnovers led to 25 points for the Red Storm.
Mitchell said the turnovers were a major reason why Marquette lost.
“You’re going to have a difficult time winning with 25 turnovers,” Mitchell said. “St. John’s capitalized off our turnovers … All those turnovers equal a loss.”
Marquette jumped out to a 10-8 lead by the 12-minute mark in the first half, but foul trouble really hurt the Golden Eagles. Pumroy got her second foul at 13:58 in the first, which significantly cut into her playing time. Freshman Ashley Santos, coming off the bench, had three fouls before the halfway mark in the first. As a team, the Golden Eagles allowed the Red Storm to get into the bonus at 11:16.
“(Pumroy) had two fouls, Ashley had three fouls and Chris (Bigica) has two fouls,” Mitchell said. “It definitely threw out rotation off.”
A couple of bright spots for the Golden Eagles were Plouffe playing against a top Big East team and the team’s overall free-throw shooting. Plouffe registered another double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, six of which were offensive. She also had four steals and was 100 percent from the free-throw line. Overall, the whole team just missed four free-throws all game and shot 91.7 percent in the first half.
Marquette looks to climb back up the standings against Providence tonight at the Al McGuire Center at 7 p.m.
