After being outscored in the first three quarters of the game, the Marquette women’s basketball suffered its first loss at home this season on Wednesday afternoon, falling to Colorado 71-48.
“(It was) a great job by Colorado,” Marquette head coach Megan Duffy said. “I thought they were tremendous playing their game. Defensively, they were very good (and) shot the ball extremely well. (I’m) just disappointed in how we came out.”
The Buffaloes started out hot by going on a 9-0 run to begin the game, forcing Marquette to call an early timeout. The Golden Eagles did not score until the 3:19 mark when senior guard Jordan King drove to the lane and made a layup.
Marquette would go on to score only one more basket before the end of the quarter, finding itself down 19-4 heading into the second quarter. The Golden Eagles went 2-for-18 from the field and were out-rebounded 13-7.
“We were trying to fight to figure out how to get a few more easy baskets,” Duffy said. “I thought we were just back on our heels, allowing them to score early. (We) had a few wide-open jumpers (and) didn’t hit them.”
The second frame started out like the first as Colorado went on a 7-0 run, forcing Duffy to call another timeout. Marquette’s offense slowly began to find itself with back-to-back jumpers by senior forward Chloe Marotta and King.
Despite the effort, it was not enough as Colorado’s offense took over for the rest of the half, outscoring the Golden Eagles 16-9.
Marquette trailed 35-13 going into the locker room, its largest margin of deficit it has faced at halftime this season. In the half, the Buffaloes shot 55.6% from the field compared to the Golden Eagles’ 18.2%.
The Golden Eagles’ shooting improved in the third quarter, as they went 6-for-13 from the field. The Golden Eagles outscored the Buffaloes 21-15 in the fourth quarter, but was never able to overcome Colorado’s strong lead.
“(We) never really fixed it or got it together, but we’ll go back to the drawing board, take a few days off for Christmas and get geared up for Big East play,” Duffy said.
The Buffaloes shot 59.6% compared to the Golden Eagles’ 32.8%. From beyond the arc, Colorado shot 43.8% and Marquette shot 20% on 4-for-20 from the field.
“We tried a little bit of everything (and) all different rotations,” Duffy said. “(We) changed defenses to see what we could get going, but it just wasn’t our day today.”
King led all Marquette scorers with 10 points on 4-for-9 shooting from the floor. In addition, she grabbed seven rebounds, dished four assists and had three steals.
Senior center Quay Miller led Colorado with 17 points shooting 7-for-13 from the field. Including Miller, four out of the five starters scored in double figures for the Buffaloes.
After its Christmas break, Marquette (9-3, 2-1 Big East) will return to conference play as it faces Villanova (10-3, 1-1 Big East) on Dec. 28 at 7 p.m. CST in the Al McGuire Center.
“The most important thing is that everyone gets home safe,” Duffy said. “Our coaches will still get after it and let the players take a little mental and physical break. I’m looking forward to getting back on the court when we’re all back together.”
This article was written by Kaylynn Wright. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @KaylynnWrightMU.
