In the 53rd edition of the Milwaukee Cup, the Marquette women’s basketball took on cross-town rival University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Sunday afternoon. And behind senior forward Chloe Marotta’s eight career double-double, the Golden Eagles defeated the Panthers 73-47.
“Great victory over Milwaukee. It’s always an extremely tough matchup when you’re down the street from one another,” head coach Megan Duffy said. “Our improvement from Friday night to Sunday was what I was most proud about. We weren’t happy with how our defense was against Holy Cross and had a quick turnaround to make make some improvements.”
Marquette jumped out to a fast 7-2 lead in the first quarter, with five of those points coming from Marotta. Senior guard Claire Kaifes hit two 3-pointers in a span of 1:40 to expand the Golden Eagles lead to 19-9 at the three minute mark of the frame.
The Golden Eagles finished the quarter leading 21-11, Marotta led all scorers with seven points in the quarter.
“We were moving the basketball really well, I thought it took us a few minutes just to kind of get settled in,” Duffy said. “Claire Kaifes was great to set the tone for us on both sides of the ball she came in, hit a couple of nice shots.”
In the first quarter there were nine different Golden Eagles saw the floor, something Duffy said she wants to see more.
“I want to play as many as I can. I think we got a competitive group in practice,” Duffy said. “We have a good mix of some vets and some young guys in different roles.”
The second quarter was all Marquette as the Golden Eagles outscored the Panthers 20-10 across the 10 minutes. Senior guard Jordan King hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the Golden Eagles into halftime leading 41-22 advantage into the break.
The second quarter was dominant from Marquette as the Golden Eagles ended the first-half leading 41-22 off of a three-pointer at the buzzer from senior guard Jordan King.
Kaifes finished the first half 3-for-3 from beyond the arc while Marotta ended with nine points, eight rebounds and five assists.
“She’s (Kaifes) got a great shot and she was confident today and that goes down and it was great for us,” Marotta said.
The second half started the same way the first half ended, a 3-point basket from King. By the under-five media timeout, Marquette held Milwaukee to 11 points to lead the Panthers 58-33.
After the media timeout, both teams played aggressive defense, only allowing one point to be scored across both teams, ending the third quarter with a 59-33 Marquette lead.
The fourth quarter started slow with neither team scoring in the first two minutes. Sophomore forward Grace Crowley ended that drought at the 8:18 mark forcing Duffy to call a timeout. After the timeout, the Golden Eagles outscored the Panthers 14-12 to secure a 73-47 win.
Junior forward Juliana Okosun saw extended action in the fourth quarter.
“Juliana brings us some great size, her job is, as well as all the bigs, is to get get boards. I thought she was strong and tough in there (the paint). Gave us some great minutes Friday night and Sunday,” Duffy said. “We had to give her some time to get some confidence because obviously she takes up great space.”
As a team, Marquette shot 37% from the field and 42.9% from 3-point range. Milwaukee shot 30.9% from the field and 15% from beyond the arc.
Marquette (3-0) travels to Paradise Island, Bahamas to face No. 3 Texas in the Battle 4 Atlantis Nov. 19 at 4 p.m. CST.
“Looking forward to it. Coach was talking about the weather. It’s a little bit cold here. We’re all coming down with some colds and it’s nice to get out there and get some sun,” Marotta said.
This story was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JackAlbrightMU.
