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Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Women’s basketball clinches third seed with victory

Natisha+Hiedeman+scored+a+team-leading+18+points+against+Georgetown+Friday+night.
Photo by Austin Anderson
Natisha Hiedeman scored a team-leading 18 points against Georgetown Friday night.

The Marquette women’s basketball team clinched the three seed in the BIG EAST Tournament with an 80-70 win over Georgetown Friday night.

The Golden Eagles committed 14 turnovers and shot 42 percent from the field, but a balanced offensive attack with four players scoring in double digits helped guide Marquette to victory.

“This is a huge win. I mean, Georgetown is a really, really good team,” head coach Carolyn Kieger said. “Obviously helping our NCAA resume as we just keep going down the stretch. We needed this one, and I think our team just found a way to win.”

Marquette started slow, partially because the team was unable to take care of the basketball. The Golden Eagles committed seven turnovers in just the first quarter.

“It was very uncharacteristic of us for sure,” Kieger said. “I think we were just being too loose with the ball. Georgetown does a good job getting their hands on balls. Obviously, (Dionna) White leads the league in steals, so they are very good at it, but once we settled down and started being strong with the ball we were okay.”

Points didn’t come in bunches in the first half for either team. Georgetown headed into the locker room shooting only 34 percent, while Marquette shot just 37 percent. Despite the poor offensive output, the Golden Eagles held a 33-29 point lead.

Keiger’s message to her team was simple at half.

“’Hey, it’s a four-point game and we haven’t played our best half at all,'” Keiger said. “That should give us confidence and it did. I think we started that second half really fast and playing our tempo. Sometimes you have to just stay confident and keep shooting them. Shooters are going to make them. Sometimes you have to shoot your way out of it.”

Marquette created some distance between itself and Georgetown in the second half with strong 3-point shooting. The Golden Eagles hit three of five 3-point attempts in the third quarter with two of those threes coming from Natisha Hiedeman, who led the team with 18 points. Georgetown, on the other hand, hit only two shots from beyond the arc all night.

The Golden Eagles took at 48-40 lead into the fourth quarter and held on to take the 80-70 win.

Marquette will wrap up the regular season against Villanova Sunday.

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