The Marquette women’s basketball team snapped its three-game losing streak in the nation’s capital Friday night against the Georgetown Hoyas by a score of 64-57.
“I love the grit of our team,” Marquette women’s basketball head coach Megan Duffy said in a statement. “It’s always difficult to come in and play Georgetown on their home floor with a bunch of young kids that are hungry. I thought in the fourth quarter we finally loosened up on the offensive end, had some great cuts and movement, and did enough defensively to clog the paint.”
The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 7-0 run forcing the Hoyas to call an early timeout after graduate student guard Karissa McLaughlin hit an early 3-pointer.
Coming out of its timeout, Georgetown responded with a run of their own to get within one 9-8. The Golden Eagles then outscored the Hoyas 11-4 to end the quarter to take a 20-12 lead into the second.
After scoring six points in the first quarter, all from three-point range, McLaughlin made just one basket in the second quarter, a layup early on in the frame. Then with 7:19 left to go in the quarter, McLaughlin picked up her second foul of the game and wouldn’t return until the second half.
The Hoyas scored six straight points to make the score 30-26 with 1:39 to go in the first half. Despite receiving scoring from six players and narrowly outscoring Marquette 16-13 in the frame, Georgetown were unable to take a lead into halftime as the Golden Eagles led 33-28 after the first 20 minutes.
Both teams traded baskets in the third quarter, that was until Marquette went on nearly a three and a half minute scoreless drought. During that stretch, Georgetown went on a 5-0 run to bring the score back within one, 42-41.
Following the scoring run from the Hoyas, the Golden Eagles finished the quarter outscoring the Georgetown 7-2 and went into the final frame with a 49-43 lead.
The fourth quarter started with a three from Georgetown to bring them within three, but that would be as close as they came as Marquette held on for the road victory.
Five different Golden Eagles finished in double-figure digits on the night. Leading the scoring effort for Marquette was McLaughlin, who finished with 14 points, two rebounds and an assist.
Junior guard Antwainette Walker continued her strong play off the bench over the last four games, as she finished the night with 10 points and eight rebounds.
As a team Marquette went 26-63 fr0m the field and 4-7 from three-point range with all of the threes coming from McLaughlin.
Overall Georgetown went 21-55 from the field and 2-13 from three-point range.
Marquette (18-8, 11-6 BIG EAST) will now have some time off before its next game on Wednesday against No. 10 UConn at the XL Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. CST on SNY.
This article was written by Ben Schultz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @benschultz52.