Last year, Marquette’s Lee Volker earned her first career double-double against Bowling Green State but did not walk out of the Stroh Center with the victory as Marquette’s nucleus was just starting to come together amidst giving up 27 team fouls in the 64-62 loss.
But when the Falcons visited the Al McGuire Center this year, in what ended in a 71-55 Golden Eagles’ win, Volker started the first quarter with two 3-pointers and ended the frame with eight points.
But, Bowling Green did not go away quietly — remember it beat Marquette last year — sparking the second quarter with two 3-pointers of its own to quickly take the lead. That’s when junior guard Halle Vice stepped up in place of Volker, who had a scoreless second quarter.
Vice provided a metaphorical lifeboat for Marquette to withstand the Falcons’ frantic scoring runs throughout the period as they briefly took the lead not once, but twice. Down one point with 1:19 remaining in the half, Vice found the post and with it the Golden Eagles’ previously lost lead, which it would not relinquish for the rest of the night.
“I think all my teammates insisted on them, credit to them, they find me in the paint, and I trust my training,” the 6-foot-1 Vice said. “It’s honestly just reps and confidence for me, the whole summer and season I’ve been tweaking parts of my game and gaining confidence in the parts of my game, which has translated.”
It was like this all Friday: Volker and Vice trading off points before the former ended with a game-most 23 and the latter finished 2nd in scoring with 18. One the night, Volker shot 9-for-14 and 3-for-5 from deep, also grabbing seven rebounds and three assists. Vice went 8-of-10 with three rebounds and four assists.
“It’s fun to see when someone may not be having a great quarter that another person can step up,” Marquette head coach Cara Consuegra said. “We’ve had games where certain individuals have scored a bunch and others haven’t, and it doesn’t really matter.
“We all play off each other, and I think that’s what makes us so dangerous.”
At halftime, Marquette’s two point lead, 29-27, was thanks in large part of the hyper-efficient work of Vice and early game tone-setting of Volker.
Out of the break, the duo put their complementary skills on full display to not just get a lead, but to extend it.
Vice got a layup to make it 36-31 Marquette and force a Bowling Green timeout, out of which Volker nailed a turnaround jumper — only 30 seconds after Vice’s layup. At the third quarter under-5 media timeout, the duo had accounted for 28 of the Golden Eagles’ 40 points.
Just like the Wisconsin game, closing out a second-half quarter would provide Marquette the momentum it would need to win, only Friday it was the third instead of the fourth.
Only ahead by five, 44-39, after Volker’s step-back jumper just in time to beat the shot clock, Consuegra called timeout. After talking things over with her team, the Golden Eagles responded through further complementary scoring, such as a Jaidynn Mason fast break layup and a crafty loft to Vice to help send her to the charity stripe.
By the end of the third quarter, Marquette led 51-39. The blue & gold outscored Bowling Green 22-12, over half of those points coming from Volker and Vice, both of whom continued to turn shots into baskets efficiently.
Volker saved her best for last, scoring 15 points in the last 20 minutes of play, her last of which fittingly came from Olivia Porter’s assist, bringing Volker’s point total equal to Porter’s No. 23 jersey.
“As a team, we’ve really focused on improving our 3-point shooting from last year to this year,” Volker said. “I like being able to take it to the paint and being able to kick it out, which is really good.”
This article was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU.
