No. 19 Marquette women’s basketball knew remaining undefeated on the season would be an uphill battle.

The Golden Eagles, in their second road match of the season, started the game down 11-0 to the Illinois State Redbirds and head coach Megan Duffy had to burn an early timeout.

What transpired was a back-and-forth game that went down to the very last second, but the Golden Eagles (9-0) escaped Normal, Illinois with a 64-62 victory over the Redbirds (6-3) Sunday afternoon at CEFCU Arena.

Karlen continues to close

Senior forward Liza Karlen, as she has done all season, made her mark on the game when Marquette needed her most.

Karlen’s first basket of the match brought an end to Illinois State’s 11-0 game-opening run and got the Golden Eagles on the board. Her final two baskets of the match — a 3-pointer and turnaround jumper — gave Marquette its first lead of the second half and a three-point advantage in the final minutes.

After Karlen put the Golden Eagles back on top, they never trailed again en route to their victory.

The St. Paul, Minnesota native scored nine points in the final frame, on her way to finishing with a game-high 19 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists.

Statistical leaders

Sophomore guard Kenzie Hare finished with 14 points, shooting 4-for-8 from the field. Senior guard Jordan King added on 13 points, six boards and six assists.

For Illinois, senior guard Maya Wong had a team-high 14 points, shooting 3-for-4 from the field and 1-for-2 from beyond the arc. Along with Wong, three other Redbirds — Caroline Waite (11), DeAnna Wilson (10) and Kate Bullman (10) scored double-digit points.

Flipping the script

Illinois State forced five Marquette turnovers in the third quarter while committing zero turnovers themselves, which pushed the Redbirds’ lead to 47-41 heading into the final frame.

Then, in the fourth quarter, the Golden Eagles flipped the script, only turning the ball over twice in the frame compared to the Redbirds’ five. Marquette was able to score six points off of these turnovers.

Marquette finished the game with 15 turnovers compared to Illinois State’s 19. The Golden Eagles scored 17 points off of the turnovers they forced compared to the Redbirds’ seven.

Up next

The Golden Eagles return home to open up conference play at the Al McGuire Center against the No. 22 Creighton Bluejays (7-1) Wednesday at 7 p.m. CST. This is the first time in program history that the Marquette will enter conference play with an undefeated record.

This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.