STORRS, CT — With hopes of winning its first-ever game against UConn, the Marquette women’s basketball team traveled to Gampel Pavilion to play the Huskies on New Year’s Eve.
However, UConn graduate student guard Lou Lopez Senechal and sophomore guard Caroline Ducharme extended UConn’s win-streak over Marquette to 16, sending the Golden Eagles home with a 61-48 loss. Lopez Senechal and Ducharme combined for 41 of the Huskies’ 61 points.
“I was just really happy with our fight today I thought after we got off to a rough start,” Marquette head coach Megan Duffy said. “Really thought our effort was much better than a couple of games past and great atmosphere here and we got to figure out how to how to bounce back.”
Make it back-to-back triples for ELC! 👌#MUWBB pic.twitter.com/qVGnwfGjV7
— Marquette WBB (@MarquetteWBB) December 31, 2022
Marquette started the game on the back foot, going down 9-0 in the first four minutes. But after a timeout by Duffy, the Golden Eagles went on a 6-0 run behind two 3-pointers by first-year guard Emily LaChapell.
“I thought we got some good looks early, that just didn’t fall and then we settled in and just relied on a little bit more ball movements,” Duffy said. “(We) took the pressure off our shoulders and said, ‘Hey, let’s take our shots. Let’s move the ball up and see what happens.'”
The first quarter ended with a 19-10 lead for the Huskies behind Lopez Senechal’s eight points. Senior guard Jordan King earned two fouls in the frame.
“Anytime that your (Marquette) leading scorer (King), and somebody who (you) can depend on can’t be in the game, that’s a huge negative for them, and a huge positive for us,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said.
The Golden Eagles started the second quarter going on a 5-0 run behind a junior forward Liza Karlen layup and 3-pointer from senior guard Claire Kaifes, but then failed to score a basket for nearly five minutes.
The Huskies did not score until Lopez Senechal hit a layup at the five-minute mark to give them a 21-15 lead.
The half ended with a 28-22 lead for UConn. Lopez Senechal led all scorers with 13 points, shooting 6-for-10 from the field.
Because of foul trouble, King did not see the court until over halfway through the second quarter.
“We did really well without her in the game. We kept it pretty great at halftime and we knew with her coming back, we’d have an extra boost and some fresh legs,” Duffy said.
Marquette shot 33.3% from the field and committed 10 turnovers in the half.
Lopez Senechal opened the second half immediately draining a 3-pointer, giving UConn a quick 31-22 lead. The Golden Eagles were unable to close up on the Huskies, despite outscoring them 6-0 off of turnovers.
An injury scare in the third quarter for graduate student forward Dorka Juhász didn’t stop UConn, who had a 44-35 lead over Marquette by the end of the frame.
In the final quarter, it looked like Marquette was going to make a comeback following a layup from Karlen which brought the Golden Eagles to within six points.
But the game ended with UConn going on an 8-2 run and holding Marquette without a basket for over five minutes to win 61-48.
Senior guard Nia Clark did not start for the first time this season as LaChapell earned her second career start.
“She’s (LaChapell) done really well in practice and just giving her the opportunity to be in this scene, I thought she did a nice job,” Duffy said.
King finished the game with four points, her second lowest point-scoring finish of the season.
Marquette finished the game shooting 34.5% from the field compared to UConn’s 46.3%.
The Golden Eagles (9-5, 2-3 Big East) will travel to Chicago to face the DePaul Blue Demons (10-5, 3-1 Big East) Jan. 4 at 7 p.m. CST.
This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached [email protected] or on Twitter @JackAlbrightMU.
