No Skylar Forbes start off the new year? No problem.
With Jordan Meulemans replacing in the starting lineup an ill Forbes, Marquette women’s basketball downed the Xavier Musketeers (8-6, 1-4 Big East) 67-54 in Cincinnati on New Year’s Day. Down their leading scorer, Halle Vice shifted to the five and Jada Bediako came off of the bench to spark the Golden Eagles (9-5, 3-2) in the post.
Vice engineered her third double-double in five games, even achieving the feat before halftime. She finished the afternoon with 20 points, a career-high 19 rebounds and a tied-career-high five assists, while echoing shades of Forbes in her scoring distribution with two 3-pointers.
The first quarter was back-and-forth, but Marquette stepped on the gas pedal in the second and never looked back. Spearheaded by 14-straight points in the second quarter, early bench contributions from Bediako and Bridget Utberg helped propel Marquette’s momentum without its preseason Naismith-watchlist player.
Xavier was held without a bucket for seven minutes in the period before scoring twice in the final two minutes, and a right corner three from Lee Volker to end the half put Marquette up 33-17. Volker complemented Vice’s big afternoon once again, almost tallying a double-double of her own with 18 points and nine rebounds.
The graduate student guard had multiple momentum-maintaining shots. She hit a 3-pointer after a Marquette five-second violation out of a Consuegra timeout in the third quarter. And in the fourth, she beat the shot clock with a jumper in the final period to ensure that the Golden Eagles would stay several steps ahead of the Musketeers in the second half.
Xavier junior guard Mariyah Noel’s 18 second half points, Marquette going nearly the last five minutes without a field goal and a season-most 23 turnovers for the Golden Eagles kept the Musketeers knocking on the door.
But, behind rebounding and late-game defense, Marquette maintained the double-digit advantage throughout the final 20 minutes. The Golden Eagles held the Musketeers to 1-of-10 from the field in the waning minutes, and they posted a plus-20 advantage on the boards, with Vice and Volker racking up 28 combined — four more than the entire Xavier lineup.
Having secured its third Big East victory of the season, Marquette returns to the Al McGuire Center to take on a red-hot Villanova squad (12-2, 5-0 Big East) that has rattled off 10 straight wins. Tip-off is set for Jan. 4 at 3 p.m. CST.
This article was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU.
