After the Big East Tournament quarterfinal loss to Villanova, Marquette women’s basketball secured an at-large bid to the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) in head coach Cara Consuegra’s first season guiding the Golden Eagles.
Marquette (20-10, 12-5 Big East) faces off against No. 4 Drake (22-11, 15-5 Missouri Valley) in Des Moines on Thursday March 20th. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+, but the time has yet to be announced.
Marquette and Drake each had close losses to Creighton, nearly 20-point triumphs over Indiana State, and victories over Illinois State, with the Golden Eagles beating the Redbirds 78-57 in Milwaukee on Dec. 8, while the Bulldogs faced them three times over the course of Missouri Valley Conference play. Drake blew out Illinois State in their first meeting on Jan. 12, but when they faced off in February and March, those contests were much closer, with the Bulldogs prevailing by five or six points compared to 21.
Sophomore Skylar Forbes leads Marquette in points and rebounds, averaging 15.4 a game, while nearly racking up six boards per game. Senior Lee Volker and sophomore Halle Vice join Forbes in averaging double figures each game, with Volker and Forbes being Marquette’s top two three-point options, with Volker shooting 41.7 percent from beyond the arc on the season.
For Drake, senior guard Katie Dinnebier is the Bulldogs’ premier scorer and distributor. A Des Moines native, she leads the Bulldogs with 23.4 points per game and almost shoots 40 percent from deep (110-for-276), with 105 more 3-point shots taken than the next Drake player in that category. In Drake’s last game in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament against Murray State, she had a career-high 45 points.
Additionally, experienced forwards Anna Miller, a senior, and Courtney Becker, a graduate student, each collect over eight rebounds a game, putting Consuegra’s “We Rebound” motto to the test.
Former Marquette head coach Megan Duffy’s Virginia Tech Hokies are a No. 1 seed in the WBIT but are on the other side of the bracket. Fellow Big East programs Villanova and Seton Hall are below Marquette in the bracket’s 8-team region with the Pirates as a No. 3 seed and the Wildcats as a No. 4.
Former Marquette guard Emily La Chapell, who has become a starter for Belmont, has helped the Bruins to the No. 3 seed in the same bracket as the Golden Eagles.
The first and second rounds, in addition to the quarterfinal games will be hosted on campus sites, while the semifinals and championship will be held at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
This article was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at michael.severson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU
