Last time out, the Golden Eagles dominated the Bulldogs 67-46 in Milwaukee, but faced a tougher challenge this time around Sunday afternoon at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Second half adjustments and stellar play by senior forward Chloe Marotta led to the Golden Eagles to their 65-63 road
With the win, Marquette has won three straight games.
Statistical Leaders
Marotta poured in the points and owned the paint for her sixth double-double of the season finishing with 25 points and 10 rebounds.
She led Marquette in both of those stat categories. Not a single player who touched the court had more than her 27 points and 14 rebounds.
In her last four games, Marotta is averaging 19 points and 13.5 rebounds. It’s a tremendous stretch for the forward as she’s moved up Marquette’s all-time rebounding list.
Senior guard Jordan King led Marquette in assists with eight dishes on the day and played all 40 minutes.
Slowly but surely
It’s a familiar pattern for the Golden Eagles: slow starts leading to early deficits.
After a quick six points for King in the first four minutes in the first quarter, Marquette would only score two points the rest of the way.
The Golden Eagles shot just 5-for-17 in the first quarter with no threes while the Bulldogs went 7-for-14 with three threes.
Marquette and Butler traded points to start out the second quarter and Marquette faced their biggest deficit of the game when Butler led 27 to 16 halfway through the quarter.
Marquette pulled Butler’s lead down to just four points at the half after King found first-year Charia Smith wide-open in the paint for an easy layup. With that shot, Smith took her career points total to six and Marquette trailed 29 to 33 at the half.
The shooting throughout the whole first half wasn’t great for the Golden Eagles. They were 11-for-32 from the field compared to Butler’s 12-for-24.
Marotta Momentum
Marquette entered the third quarter looking to build on their momentum, and, as she’s done all season, Marotta answered the call.
Marotta owned the third quarter for the Golden Eagles. The forward had 12 points of Marquette’s 17 in the frame.
Somehow, someway, Marotta managed to turn up the heat in the fourth quarter.
With just 2:53 left in the game, Marotta put it up through contact for the first of her back-to-back and-ones which kept Butler at bay.
The Golden Eagles took just six shots from players that weren’t Marotta in the fourth quarter. Marotta scored 13 points on 5-for-10 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds in the fourth quarter alone.
The second half shooting splits flipped, and Marquette shot the ball much better, 14-for-28, than they had in the first half. Butler still shot the ball well from behind the arc, going 3-for-7, to end shooting 7-for-13.
First-year guard Emily La Chapell sealed the win for the Golden Eagles with a buzzer beating layup.
Another look at Emily La Chapell’s game winning tip-in!#MUWBB pic.twitter.com/75QZdlQUhz
— Marquette WBB (@MarquetteWBB) January 29, 2023
Next Up:
Marquette (14-7, 7-5 Big East) travels out to Philadelphia for a rematch with Villanova (18-4, 9-2 Big East) Feb. 1 at 5:30 p.m. CST.
This article was written by John Gunville. He can be reached at j[email protected] or on Twitter @GunvilleJohn.
