The Marquette Golden Eagles’ first postseason victory under Cara Consuegra didn’t come easy, but thanks to a strong second half, it advanced in the WBIT past the fourth-seeded Drake Bulldogs at Knapp Center in Des Moines, Iowa, 74-69 on Thursday afternoon.
Marquette (21-10) faced a 10-point deficit at halftime after a dominant second quarter from Drake (22-12), and went blow for blow with the Bulldogs, outscoring them by nine in the third quarter and heading into the fourth quarter down one.
Senior guard Katie Dinnebier hit two free throws for Drake to tie the game at 69 with 1:09 left in the game, and junior guard Jaidynn Mason made the last field goal of the game, giving Marquette a two-point lead with 50 seconds to play.
After a shot clock violation on Marquette’s ensuing possession, Drake had the ball on its end of the floor with 6.9 seconds left. Drake junior guard Abbie Aalsma turned the ball over on the inbound, which became the determining play of the game. Marquette made three free throws off fouls en route to its victory.
Dinnebier led the way for the Bulldogs, scoring 25 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the floor, adding six rebounds and five assists. Sophomore forward Skylar Forbes tallied 18 points for the Golden Eagles on 7-of-19 from the field. Forbes also doubled her career-high in steals, tallying six.
Jab for jab
Marquette took a four-point lead into the second quarter but was outscored 24-10 in that frame.
Drake exploded on an 11-0 run backed by three made triples from Aalsma over three minutes from 6:30 to the 3:07 mark of the quarter.
The Golden Eagles had all six of their first-half turnovers in the second quarter, with the Bulldogs scoring five points off their mistakes. Aalsma had 11 points in the quarter and was perfect from the field, making four field goals including the three 3-pointers.
Aalsma finished with 16 points on 5-0f-9 shooting from the field and added two rebounds and two assists.
Marquette responded out of the half by outscoring Drake 25-16 in the third quarter.
Mason had eight of her 16 points in the third quarter, including dishing three assists in the frame. Mason finished the game shooting 7-for-9 from the floor and had six assists and three rebounds.
The Golden Eagles assisted on half of their makes in the quarter, and outside of Mason’s eight, sophomore forward Halle Vice added six points and senior guard Lee Volker scored five in the quarter. Vice finished with a tied-for-team-high 18 points on 5-f0r-10 shooting from the field and five rebounds.
Up Next
Marquette will face the winner of James Madison and Davidson on Sunday, March 23rd. Tip-off and location is still TBD.
This story was written by Trevor Hilson. He can be reached at trevor.hilson@marquette.edu or @hilsontrevor on Twitter/X.
