As Marquette and Seton Hall went step-for-step during Wednesday’s rematch at the Al McGuire Center, something looked like it had to give, and it went quickly out of the halftime buzzer.
That something was Marquette’s scoring ability, as the Golden Eagles (16-9, 10-6 Big East) could not buy a bucket down the stretch of the 70-58 loss to the Pirates (16-8, 10-5). MU had tallied 40 points in the first half, while not even squeaking out half of that in the last 20 minutes en route to its second straight defeat.
“Nobody goes out there and tries to play that type of the last 16 minutes, so they’re disappointed, hurt and frustrated,” Marquette head coach Consuegra said. “Okay, we get up tomorrow and get back to work.”
Though, Marquette was able to close out the first quarter by draining five of its last seven field goals en route to a six-point profit at the end of the opening 10 minutes.
Seton Hall would get closer, cutting the early Marquette advantage to as little as one, before two 3-pointers from senior guard Bridget Utberg within 90 seconds of each other gave the Golden Eagles a little more breathing room going into the intermission ahead by four, 40-36.
The Golden Eagles looked like they would pick up where they left off. They made three baskets almost within a minute of each other from the 8:16 mark in the third quarter, with graduate student guard Lee Volker’s layup prompting Seton Hall head coach Anthony Bozzella to call timeout with MU up seven with 7:11 to go in the period.
After the stoppage, a combination of unlucky swirling rim-outs and giveaways did not add up to a successful formula as Marquette could only muster a single Skylar Forbes layup at the 6:31 mark — for the rest of the quarter. Scoring droughts have been a theme against the Pirate defense, with MU going scoreless for more than a quarter’s length in the first matchup against Seton Hall on Jan. 14.
Now at the end of three, the Pirates sported a 54-49 advantage. It would never relinquish pole position for the rest of the contest, propelled by that 14-2 run after Bozzella’s timeout. MU turned the ball over eight times in the second half, compared to just three giveaways in the opening 20 minutes.
“I thought in this game we got frustrated, and I don’t think we play well when we’re frustrated,” Consuegra said. “That happened a lot in the third quarter, and we tried to overcome that in the fourth, and we just weren’t able to.”
Marquette looked to get back in it, cutting the Seton Hall advantage to two possessions off of a rather unconventional 4-point play. Volker missed the and-one, redshirt junior forward Charia Smith got the rebound and scored the basket to make it a five-point game with a tad over seven minutes left.
Deja vu was felt all over again for MU fans as it played out eerily similar to the third, as the Golden Eagles would go without a field goal for the remaining 7:17 of the contest — its only points the rest of the way were via a pair of free throws from Forbes with 1:04 left. Seton Hall would take the opportunity to capitalize on a 9-2 run to close out the game in defeating fashion for the Golden Eagles.
“It’s hard. We’ve been shooting really well this whole season,” Volker said. “So I think there’s just going to be some days like that, and that’s where the other stuff’s got to make up for it. And that’s where we weren’t necessarily there today.”
Marquette lost the rebounding battle 44-26 — its third-largest differential this season — which led to Seton Hall scoring 16 second chance to the Golden Eagles’ 8.
Next up for the Golden Eagles are the undefeated No. 1 UConn Huskies (26-0, 15-0 Big East) coming to the Al McGuire Center, Feb. 14.
This article was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU.
