After pulling off a big home win against Butler last Sunday, Marquette women’s basketball returned on the road looking to extend their winning streak to three games.
The Villanova Wildcats had other plans for the Golden Eagles, pulling off the 61-47 upset Friday night.
As the trend has been throughout the entire season, the first quarter was sloppy for MU. Despite going on a four-minute scoring drought at one point during the quarter, the score was tied 13-13 by the end of the frame.
The second quarter was the Mary Gedaka show. The senior guard scored nine points in the quarter, shooting 3-for-4 from the field and 2-for-2 from beyond the arc. It was the Wildcats defense that brought struggles to the Golden Eagles in the frame. MU found themselves down 27-18 at the half after shooting 28% from the field in the second quarter.
In the first half, the Golden Eagles shot 30% from the field and 25% from beyond the arc and turned the ball over 13 times.
The start of the third quarter was not much better for MU as Villanova would open the quarter on a 10-2 run forcing Marquette head coach Megan Duffy to call a timeout. Despite a 8-0 run in the last 2:10 of the quarter, the Golden Eagles still found themselves down 48-32 heading into the final quarter.
Despite back-to-back layups from senior forward Altia Anderson to begin the fourth, a 7:17 no field-goal drought put MU in a tough position to pull a come-from-behind victory on the road allowing the Wildcats to pull away with a demanding 61-47 win.
Marquette shot a poor 8% from beyond the arc while Villanova shot 37%. The Golden Eagles also shot a season-worst 31% from the field on the night.
Duffy’s team turned over the ball 18 times.
Junior guard Selena Lott led the way for the Golden Eagles with 13 points shooting 3-for 9 from the field and 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. She also had a game-high seven assists.
Gedaka led the way for the Wildcats with 21 points shooting 9-for-13, three rebounds and one steal.
Despite splitting the regular-season series 1-1 and MU leading the overall series 15-10, the Wildcats snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Golden Eagles.
With the loss to Villanova and Butler’s win over Creighton, Marquette now holds a half-game lead for second place in BIG EAST standings.
Marquette (20-7, 11-5 BIG EAST) will remain on the road as they head to the nation’s capital to take on the Georgetown Hoyas Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time.
This article was written by John Leuzzi. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JohnleuzziMU.
