In front of family and fans wearing Pink for Play4Kay Day, senior forward Chloe Marotta further cemented herself into the Marquette women’s basketball history book by becoming the program’s 33rd player to reach 1,000 career points.
“It’s a great time. My mom probably loves it more than me. She’s out there very, very excited for me and I love to see her happy,” Marotta said. “That’s the best thing that, if I can make her happy in that way, it’s great. But my siblings are great. I had 35 people here tonight, some of my family came from California. Not necessarily knowing that I was gonna get that but just to come support me.”
Marotta’s double-double performance was a crucial part of Marquette’s (18-8, 11-6 Big East) fight for fourth place in the Big East against St. John’s (19-7, 10-7) as it posted a 61-38 win Saturday afternoon at the Al McGuire Center over the Johnnies.
“This was a tremendous win and really a collective team effort,” head coach Megan Duffy said. “I thought our rebounding and our defense was tremendous today, and we were able to take St. John’s out of what they do. I’m really proud of our entire team effort.”
Statistical Leaders:
Senior guard Jordan King led the Golden Eagles with 24 points on 9-for-17 shooting. King also pitched in six rebounds and six assists.
“The thing about J is she just keeps adding little things to her game, as a playmaker and as a scorer,” Duffy said. “It’s just so fun for myself and our staff to meet with her and watch film with her.”
Marotta finished with 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
“Chloe brings an incredible attitude every day and she’s the epitome of what player development looks like,” Duffy said. “Every year she has incrementally improved. Always puts the team first in what she does and this year, especially, when we asked her to step up.”
Junior guard Rose Nkumu tied her career high and led the team with seven assists.
“Rose did a great job on both sides of the ball today, being able to control the tempo and pace of how the game was gonna be played,” King said.
First Half Frenzy
Marquette jumped out to a 19-6 lead in the first quarter behind a 10-0 run and six points from junior forward Liza Karlen.
“Liza had a great hot start for us tonight. She came in and she got to her post moves early, some nice finishes,” Marotta said.
The second quarter was a low-scoring affair, which allowed St. John’s to keep itself in the game.
Marquette led 29-21 at halftime after St. John’s went on a 8-2 run to end the half.
“We had our offensive flow moving nicely in that first quarter. Didn’t love our second quarter but I thought we responded well in the third,” Duffy said.
Rebound Rumble
Marotta grabbed more rebounds in the first quarter than St. John’s had points in the first quarter. The Golden Eagles out-rebounded the Red Storm 26-13 in the first half.
“They can really rebound the ball. For us bigs, we really talked about that a ton,” Marotta said. “Our guards did a great job of helping us get in there. We really had to anticipate the shots early. That’s the biggest thing to make sure we can box them up as fast as we could.”
Marquette out-rebounded St. John’s 46 to 26 while three Golden Eagles along with Marotta pitched in five or more rebounds.
“Jordan coming and getting six and Rose scooping up a couple. I thought Kennedi Myles was awesome, five offensive rebounds eight total. They had a tenacity about themselves on the boards,” Duffy said.
Kaifes Out For Season
Duffy announced that senior guard Claire Kaifes is out for the rest of the season after an emergency appendectomy. Kaifes missed the entire 2021-22 season with a torn ACL injury.
Despite the loss of Kaifes, Duffy said Kaifes is keeping busy helping the team out from the bench.
“We were all really bummed to see what happened to her,” Duffy said. “But, she’s contributing in other ways. And that’s kind of a sign of a great leader is being able to do that, step into a new role and help her teammates out.”
Next Up:
Marquette sticks around in Milwaukee for a Wednesday night matchup with Creighton (18-7, 12-5). The Bluejays took the matchup in Omaha in January 80-57.
This article was written by John Gunville. He can be reached at j[email protected] or on Twitter @GunvilleJohn.
