Winning is good, but this game was not.
In the past, when writing a recap, I’ve talked about the difficulty of trying to determine what part of a game that went to overtime was actually important to discuss. From a certain point of view, nothing about the game in regulation matters because the contest was decided in the overtime session because the two teams were even after 40 minutes. If there wasn’t a big 10+ point rally to force the extra time, then did anything really matter relative to the outcome?
And so on.
There’s another version of this. When two women’s basketball teams play and neither team scores more than 17 points in any of the four quarters and neither team’s final margin even makes it to 60 points, what part of the game was critical? When both teams shoot under 40% from the field and under 32% from behind the three point line, was there a lot of crucial shot making going on at all? When both teams turn it over 13 or more times in a 64 possession game, meaning more than one-fifth of all the possessions in the game were just a turnover and not a scoring opportunity, is that tenaciously contested defense or just sloppy basketball to go along with the sloppy shooting?
These are the questions facing me as I attempt to put together a recap for Marquette’s 56-55 victory over St. John’s on Wednesday night.
Let’s start here, because it’s instructive. When St. John’s beat Marquette in Milwaukee, I spent the recap pointing out that the Golden Eagles missed 14 layups. Tonight, at Carnesecca Arena in Queens? Marquette missed NINETEEN shots that the play by play calls layup attempts. NINETEEN. If Marquette makes NINE of those attempts, leaving them at 47% shooting on LAYUPS in this game, they beat St. John’s by, ironically, NINETEEN POINTS because those nine makes get them 18 more points.
GAH.
Okay, so here’s what you need to know. Marquette outscored St. John’s 25-17 over the final 16 minutes of this game. No, that’s not a massive accomplishment, but the Golden Eagles did the heavy lifting after falling behind by seven on a night when a seven point margin probably felt more like 12. 8-2 Marquette in the final six minutes of the third quarter to get the margin down to just one point heading to the fourth quarter, and then 13-8 over the final eight minutes after St. John’s got the margin back to four points on a triple from Brooke Moore.
Everyone had to do a little bit. Two free throws from Jaidynn Mason. An easy eight-footer in the paint from Lee Volker to tie the game at 47. Two free throws from Skylar Forbes. A layup from Halle Vice as she made a very nice ghost screen slip cut to the rim. A layup from Volker. Two free throws from Vice. Last, one free throw from Olivia Porter as she drew a foul with 22 seconds left after pulling in a rebound on a St. John’s miss with the score tied at 55.
Did you notice the free throws there? Yeah, Marquette somehow built a four point lead, blew it with just over a minute to play, but then managed to win anyway while not putting a single made field goal on the board in the final 4:03. Heck, Porter’s game winning free throw was Marquette’s only point in the final 2:30.
Even then, with MU only up 56-55, St. John’s had a chance to win it at the horn. Marquette’s defense shut off all of STJ’s possible options for attack leaving them with only an eight foot fadeaway from Shaulana Wagner with nine seconds left where she got caught trying to shoot it over the 6’3” Skylar Forbes. Officially, Wagner came up with her own miss after a scramble with the ball pinballing everywhere, but officially, she had it stolen by Forbes, and it ended up with Vice, who threw to Volker, and the horn sounded.
It was not aesthetically pleasing, it barely qualifies fun, but a win is a win, even when Skylar Forbes, Halle Vice, and Jaidynn Mason combine to shoot 8-for-32 in the game. Your leading scorer here is Forbes, who finished with 12 and added five rebounds, three blocks, and three steals. Lee Volker just missed a double-double on 11 points and a team high nine rebounds, while Jaidynn Mason had a team high four assists along with six points, two rebounds, and a steal.
Highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and NBC Sports/Peacock:
Up Next: Marquette’s next attempt at shaking out of the funk that they’ve been in lately comes up on Sunday when the Golden Eagles will head down to Indianapolis to visit Butler. Tipoff there is set for 1pm Central time and ESPN+ will have the broadcast. The Bulldogs are 9-11 overall and 3-7 in the Big East after getting a 73-67 win over DePaul on Wednesday night. Butler is 5-5 since Marquette beat them 80-55 in Milwaukee back in early December.
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Category: General Sports
