Pink pom-poms lined the Al McGuire Center Wednesday night as Marquette women’s basketball took on Georgetown in their Play4Kay game. 

The poms shook in the air not only in support of the fight against cancer, but for the Golden Eagles in their fight for a win.

“Just a phenomenal day today,” Marquette head coach Megan Duffy said. “We had so much going on in the Al. National Girls and Women in Sport Day, we had our Play4Kay game.”

After coming off a major comeback game against Providence Saturday, Marquette had to once again find a way to dig deep and come out on top.

“The Providence game was a great road win,” Duffy said. “I’m proud of the way they’re fighting, it’s one game at a time, we just have to keep the mentality of, how can we improve?”

And the Golden Eagles (18-5, 7-5 Big East) were able to, scraping a gritty 52-38 win over the Hoyas (15-8, 5-7 Big East).

“I’m not sure we really got going until the end of the second quarter, and then a third quarter opened up a little bit for us. I thought we moved the ball a little bit better,” Duffy said. “And kudos to Georgetown, their defense is very good. They’re physical. They’re tough. So I just thought it was kind of a juggernaut battle throughout this game.”

Slow start

Both teams struggled at the start in every way possible.

Scrambling to keep up with the pressure from the Hoyas, the Golden Eagles were forced into six turnovers. In turn, Georgetown committed eight themselves, yet still managed to hold a 7-4 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Everything about the first 10 minutes was downright ugly. The Golden Eagles’ four points marked the least amount scored in a single quarter this season. They were also out-rebounded 15-6 and shot a measly 18.2% from the field.

“Man, it just felt like, just a really long game in that first quarter,” Duffy said.

Paint party

Coming into the game, the Golden Eagles were the best 3-point shooting team in the Big East (35.3%), yet they didn’t make a single deep shot, finishing 0-for-9 from beyond the arc. It was the first time since Feb. 6, 2022 that Marquette finished a game without a triple.

Despite their inability to make a 3-pointer, the Golden Eagles were able score in other ways. 22 points came in the paint (42% of all their points), five came on the fastbreak, 15 came off turnovers and 20 came from the free-throw line.

“At this point in conference play, some of the stats and the efficiency of offense and defense, it kinda doesn’t matter. It’s about making enough plays to win the game,” Duffy said. “I didn’t think we settled too much. I thought we were trying to attack the basket and get to the free throw line, which played in our favor.”

But a big reason behind Marquette’s win was that Liza Karlen and Frannie Hottinger eventually got going.

Karlen had all of the Golden Eagles four points after the first quarter and Hottinger hit four important free-throws in the second quarter to help swing momentum.

“The way those two played across the course of the game was great,” Duffy said. “Frannie being able to make those free throws when both teams were struggling to score a little bit was very important.”  

By the end, the former AAU teammates were the only two players in the game — across both teams — to score double-digits.

Karlen led with 22 points (also grabbing 10 rebounds) and Hottinger scored 15 as well to combine for 37 of Marquette’s 52 points..

Up next

Marquette will take on the Villanova Wildcats in their National Marquette Day game at the Al McGuire Center. Tip off is scheduled for 2 p.m. CST. 

This story was written by Raquel Ruiz. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @RaquelRuizMU.