Marquette (16-8, 8-5 Big East) hands Seton Hall (17-6, 9-4 Big East) its fourth conference loss after a strong second half and senior guard Lee Volker’s career high.
Top Performers
Volker scored a career-high 24 points on 8-for-10 shooting and 2-of-3 from downtown. She also added seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Sophomore guard Halle Vice scored just five points on 2-for-6 shooting in the first matchup. Wednesday, she dropped 19 points (8-of-12) and set a new career high in rebounds, grabbing 13.
Sophomore forward Skylar Forbes struggled from beyond the arc (1-of-8) but affected winning at a prominent level. Forbes scored 11 points, grabbed nine rebounds and protected the rim with three blocked shots.
The three Golden Eagles previously mentioned combined to score 55 of 68 Marquette’s points and grabbed 29 of its 41 rebounds.
For the Pirates, first-year guard Jada Eads scored 26 points on 10-for-21 shooting (4-of-11 from deep) and came up one point short of her career high.
MU gets it done from two
The Golden Eagles won the game behind outstanding two-point defense and above average two-point offense.
Marquette shot 22-of-36 (61 percent) from two because of outstanding interior passing (15 assists) leading to quality looks. The Golden Eagles held Seton Hall to 15-for-34 (44 percent) from within the arc.
Forbes, Vice and junior guard Olivia Porter had multiple blocks. In general, Marquette continuously made the Pirates take contested shots over vertical contests.
The Golden Eagles’ discipline was the difference in the game as Marquette doubled Seton Hall up with 24 free throw attempts to its 12. Marquette hit 15-of-24 to Seton Hall’s 7-for-12.
The Pirates’ lack of discipline disqualified two players as graduate guard Amari Wright and graduate guard/forward Kaydan Lawson both exited the game in the fourth quarter due to going over the foul limit.
Seton Hall (8-for-24) outshot Marquette (3-of-17) from downtown but the Golden Eagles stout two-point defense was too much for the Pirates to makeup.
Creating Extra Possessions
In the first matchup, Seton Hall out-rebounded Marquette 38-36 which was a big reason for the Pirates road win. Wednesday, Marquette dominated the glass grabbing 41 rebounds to Seton Hall’s 28.
Marquette had an offensive rebounding rate of 37.5 percent (12 offensive rebounds/32 total rebounds). The Golden Eagles defensive rebounding rate was 74 percent (29 defensive rebounds/37 total rebounds).
The Golden Eagles lost the turnover battle as Seton Hall forced them into 15 turnovers while having 13 turnovers of their own. However, Marquette was able to turn Pirate turnovers into points, scoring 15 points off turnovers, and limited Seton Hall’s offense off Golden Eagle turnovers to 11.
Up Next
After a two-game road stretch, Marquette returns home for two straight home games. The Golden Eagles (16-8, 8-5 Big East) will take on Depaul (12-14, 7-6 Big East) on Saturday, February 15th at 2 p.m. CST.
This story was written by Max Mullin. He can be reached at maxwell.mullin@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MullinMax.
