We’ve talked over and over and over about Marquette women’s basketball having massive lapses over the past month or so. As of late, the lapses haven’t officially cost the Golden Eagles anything, although things came very close against DePaul back on January 28th. Sometimes the lapses didn’t even look like it was really a problem for MU, like when Providence cut a 22 point lead down to just 10 and then Marquette won by 17 anyway.
Fast forward to Sunday afternoon in Omaha as Marquette spent 30 minutes slowly inching further and further away from Creighton. Progress is never a straight line, and the lead went up and down but kept extending and extending, all the way through Kennedi Perkins converting an and-1 right before the horn going to the fourth quarter and Lee Volker connecting on a layup 15 seconds into the next frame for a 12 point lead. That was Marquette’s largest lead of the game, and all they had to do was just keep going like they had been going.
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To that point of the game, Marquette was shooting 52% from the field and 45% from long range. The Golden Eagles had committed just eight turnovers in the entire game. Creighton was shooting just under 41% overall and only 25% behind the three point line. The Bluejays had committed seven turnovers up until then.
In the final 9:40 of regulation, Marquette 40% from the field including 0-for-2 on threes and committed six turnovers. Creighton continued their 41% shooting, but now that was better than what the Golden Eagles were throwing up at the rim and the Bluejays committed not a single turnover. Creighton shot just 2-for-6 from behind the arc in the fourth quarter, but the most important make of perhaps the entire game came with 20 seconds left and Neleigh Gessert recorded 1) her second and final make of the entire game on 11 attempts and 2) her first three-pointer on seven attempts.
And the part that really eats at me is Lee Volker biting on the pump fake on the shooter that was 0-for-6 in the game when all Marquette had to do was just get one stupid stop with 22 seconds left. It wouldn’t have been fun, but it would have been a win. Instead, Gessert sees her flying through the air, sidesteps, and drains the purest looking shot you’ll ever see. 12 point lead evaporated, and after Volker’s attempt at a winner on the other end rimmed off, the game was going to overtime.
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Marquette’s chance to step on Creighton’s neck in the extra session got thrown out of whack with a Jaidynn Mason turnover while MU was up 69-68 after a CU miss. That turned into a Grace Boffeli layup, just like each of the next three Bluejays possessions did. Marquette still had chances to win, even as the clock wound under a minute, as it was just Creighton by one, 74-73, but they couldn’t stop Ava Zediker from getting to the rim just like they couldn’t stop Boffeli, and after MU wasted 13 seconds and Forbes missed a free throw with 24 seconds left, the Golden Eagles had to foul to extend the game. Allison Heathcock hit her freebies to make it a four point game, Marquette wasted eight seconds running a verrrrrrrrrrry long developing play to get a three for Jordan Meulemans instead of trying for a catch and shoot off the inbound, she missed, and that was that.
Your overtime shooting numbers: 38% for Marquette, 0-for-3 behind the arc; 80% for Creighton, with their only miss coming on a three-pointer.
Nine more minutes of how the first 31 went and Marquette wins. Instead, the lapses came back for 14 minutes, and the Golden Eagles got their five game winning streak snapped.
Highlights, such as they are, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and Fox Sports, because this collapse was on national television:
Up Next: Hey, remember when Marquette went up 20-5 on Seton Hall in South Orange and then immediately threw that lead in the trash and lost to the Pirates? Yeah, well, now SHU comes to the McGuire Center. Tipoff on Wednesday, February 11 is set for 6:30pm Central, and ESPN+ will have the streaming broadcast. The Pirates have lost three of the last four after taking a 67-61 defeat on the road against St. John’s on Saturday.
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