Marquette women’s basketball came out on the wrong side of a roller coaster matchup against Villanova on National Marquette Day, losing 55-52 Saturday afternoon at the Al McGuire Center.

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

Turnovers cost Marquette

The turnover issues that have plagued the Golden Eagles all season were prevalent Saturday.

Marquette finished the game with 18 turnovers, which equated to 16 of Villanova’s points. Rose Nkumu, Liza Karlen and Jordan King all finished with four or more turnovers.

“We’re always trying to play fast, and get some easy baskets,” Marquette head coach Megan Duffy said. “We had a few uncharacteristic turnovers off of that in the first half.”

Golden Eagles are unable to score late

Before Saturday, it was just in the road that Marquette had late-game shooting woes. After, the issues down the stretch made their way into the Al.

After a media timeout called with just over four minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Golden Eagles’ scoring became as dry as a desert as Marquette went 0-for-5 overall and 0-for-3 from deep.

Kenzie Hare’s last two 3-point attempts were deflected and Karlen’s last-second game-tying three bounced off the rim.

3-point shooting a positive for Marquette

The Golden Eagles’ 3-point shooting — which is good for 2nd in the Big East — helped keep them in the game.

Hare finished the game 40% (4-for-10) from downtown. King knocked down three 3-pointers and Karlen went 1-for-2 from beyond the arc. As a team, Marquette finished 8-for-21 (38.1%).

Wednesday against Georgetown, Marquette won the game without making a single 3-pointer — going 0-for-9 — for the first time in two years. The Golden Eagles were much more up to their standard Saturday.

This story was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU