Light The Tape On Fire: #19 Villanova 73, Marquette 54

Feb 2, 2023 - 8:39 PM

Marquette head coach Megan Duffy" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9mf9YD0RGYW1X6Y5YnWbxqYp5Fg=/0x258:4950x3042/1920x1080/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71934437/Marquette_women_s_basketball_huddle.0.jpg" />

It was a nice little basketball game for approximately 11 minutes.

Marquette women’s basketball went into the second quarter of Wednesday night’s visit to Pennsylvania tied with #19 Villanova at 13 points each. On MU’s first possession of the second period, Kennedi Myles scored to put the Golden Eagles out in front, 15-13. That was with 9:24 left in the quarter.

Marquette’s next points came with 2:18 to go before halftime.

Jordan King’s bucket gave Marquette 17 points in the game..... and pulled them within 14, 31-17.

Marquette would not score again in the quarter as the Wildcats tacked on six more points for a 37-17 lead at halftime. Villanova’s lead oscillated somewhere between 16 and 25 points for the entire second half before Chloe Marotta closed out the scoring for the game with an and-1 to end it 73-54 favoring Villanova. Marquette drops to 14-8 overall and 7-6 in the Big East, and their three game winning streak comes to an end.

The Golden Eagles shot 2-for-18, just 11%, in the second quarter. Villanova shot 59%. Does anything that happened in the entire second half matter? It’s neat that Marquette played Villanova mostly to a standstill for 30 minutes, I’ll say that.... but the game was decided by VU’s 24-4 second quarter.... which was a 24-2 run really.

I vote for burning the tape instead of trying to learn anything from the good 30 minutes or even trying to shore up whatever problems there were in the bad 10 minutes. Forget it happened. Move on. Focus on what you can control, which is how you play in the seven Big East games remaining.

With that in mind....

Up Next: Marquette returns to the McGuire Center for a National Marquette Day contest against Georgetown. Tipoff is scheduled for 5pm Central time, and you’ll notice that gives you two-ish hours between when the men’s game ends to make your way to the campus for the women’s game. Marquette won the meeting in D.C. earlier this season, 78-57, and the Hoyas are coming in with wins in four of their last five games.