Villanova (12-10, 6-4 Big East) beats Marquette (14-7, 6-4 Big East) after building a 38-26 halftime lead and holding the Golden Eagles scoreless from behind the arc.
Three Point Shooting
It’s almost been a full year since Marquette hasn’t connected on a 3-pointer in a contest. The last time that happened was last season against Georgetown in an eventual 52-38 win. Sunday, an 0-for-9 performance from downtown made the Wildcat’s halftime lead insurmountable.
On the other side, Villanova went 8-of-17 on deep ball attempts, marking the seventh time this season the Wildcats have made more than 7 treys.
Marquette allowed Villanova to shoot 47.1% from the outside, the second-highest 3-point percentage the Golden Eagles have allowed all season and 17.7% higher than Marquette’s season average of allowing 29.4% shooting from deep.
Taking care of the basketball
The Golden Eagles had 18 turnovers, 11 of which were in the first half. 10 of them were steals for Villanova, which led to 19 Wildcat points off turnovers.
Marquette turned the Wildcats over 13 times, which led to 12 Golden Eagle points, slightly below Marquette’s season average of 15.3.
The Golden Eagles are 13-2 when forcing a higher or the same turnover percentage than their opponent, but drop to 1-5 when turning it over at a higher percentage than their opponent.
Stand Out Players
Halle Vice carried the Golden Eagles with 20 points (9-for-10 shooting), eight rebounds, two assists, two steals and only one turnover. Vice did this while shooting her highest field goal percentage of the year (90%).
Skylar Forbes added 12 points (3-for-11), Jaidynn Mason scored 10 points (4-of-8) and Lee Volker dropped six points (3-for-10).
The Wildcats were led by a three-headed scoring monster. Jasmine Bascoe scored 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor and added six assists. Denae Carter scored 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting and Bronagh Power-Cassidy scored 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from deep.
Together, these three Wildcats combined to score 46 of 65 of Villanova’s points.
Bench Production
Marquette got three points from its bench with six boards, one assist and four turnovers.
On the other hand, Villanova had outstanding bench production. The Wildcats bench scored 13 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, dished seven assists, had seven steals and limited the turnovers to three.
Up Next
Marquette (14-7, 6-4 Big East) returns home on Wednesday, February 5th, at 6:30 p.m. CST to try and bounce back against St. John’s (13-9, 3-8 Big East).
This story was written by Max Mullin. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MullinMax