Marquette knocks off UConn for one of the biggest victories in its women's basketball history
It’s hard to avoid using superlatives at times like these.
Was a 59-52 victory over fourth-ranked UConn on Wednesday night at a rocking Al McGuire Center the biggest in the history of Marquette women’s basketball?
“It’s up there,” MU coach Megan Duffy said after the Golden Eagles outlasted the Huskies with tenacious defense and a patient offense that waited for second and third options.
“Top-five team in the country, a conference opponent, the history of UConn and what we had to do to be in position to win that game, it’s pretty great.”
UConn, which has claimed a record 11 national championships, had won all 16 previous meetings of the teams.
The Huskies (21-4, 7-1 Big East) were coming off a loss to No. 1 South Carolina on Sunday, and the last time they’d lost back-to-back games was in 1993.
Box score:Marquette 59, UConn 52
More:Dawn Staley claps back at Geno Auriemma's criticism of South Carolina's physical play vs UConn
“When people read that stat and they look back, that is a fairytale stat,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “And all fairytales, they don't always come true, but everything has an end. So this ended here at Marquette.”
Marquette (16-8, 9-6) held UConn to its lowest point total of the season and became the first non-top-10 team to beat the Huskies this season.
“We knew we were up against a buzz saw with Connecticut losing Sunday, knew there were going to be some major blows, some punches thrown, but our girls were just tremendous, staying together, fighting,” Duffy said. “Probably one of our best defensive performances of the season, just with our fight and grit and even our rebounding effort was tremendous.”
Junior guard Rose Nkumu had five steals for Marquette, which finished with 12 and forced 19 UConn turnovers. Some of the most important of those came while the Golden Eagles went on a 23-4 run after giving up the first six points of the game.
“I believe we are a great executing team, and Coach puts us in great positions to do that, but I just felt like we were starting to knock down shots and Rose’s defense was amazing,” senior guard Jordan King said. “I felt like we had five people connected on the defensive end.”
King scored 10 straight points in that early Marquette run, including a pair of three-pointers, and finished with 18. Another four came on free throws in the final 30 seconds.
Senior forward Chloe Marotta led the Golden Eagles with 19 points, including seven in the fourth quarter, and had nine rebounds. Junior forward Liza Karlen finished with a team-high 10 boards.
“Tonight was a lot of our experience,” said Marotta, who also had nine rebounds. “We’ve been in these moments before, we’ve played them before and the way that Jordan, Liza and Rose and I handled those huddles, got everyone focused, stayed consistent through everything, I think that’s the main reason we won the game tonight.”
With the UConn roster thinned by injuries, each of the five starters played at least 36 minutes. Marquette held UConn leading scorer Aaliyah Edwards to eight points, less than half her average. Dorka Juhász led the Huskies with 15.
The Huskies’ previous low output was 60 in a loss to Notre Dame in December and the second-most had been in their 61-48 victory over the Golden Eagles in Storrs, Connecticut, on New Year’s Eve.
“It’s interesting with Connecticut; you can look back at the first game and say, ‘OK, we did this well. I think we can build on it,’ and the next game they take you right out of it,” Duffy said. “A little bit of it, every time you play is almost a fresh, new game because of how talented they are and how they make adjustments.
“I thought it was not necessarily an adjustment (from the first game), but just getting your team ready to play, getting them playing good quality basketball. And you’ve got to have a little bit of luck obviously when you win a game like tonight. But just the fact that we stuck to the game plan and played extremely hard and then the ball went in the basket a few times.”
Marquette led for more than 33 of the 40 minutes but did let UConn tie the score at 31-31 with 6:10 left in the third quarter. Marotta scored the next five points.
A year ago, Marquette led UConn in the second half at the Al before falling 72-58. The leaders did not need to be reminded.
“We came into the huddle and we were up with the media timeout in the fourth quarter, and I was like, we were here last year,” King said. “I’m not watching film of how we lost in the last five minutes.
“Knowing you have to put 40 minutes of basketball together and for us, we did that. At times when they were able to score, a defensive mistake, foul trouble or whatever, I don’t think we let that alter our mindset.”
Marquette, which earlier in the season upset then-No. 3 Texas, has an unusual opportunity to savor this victory — wherever it’ll go down in MU lore — with its next game scheduled for Feb. 16 at Providence.
“We talked about this is a big moment, before the game, of not taking this lightly when UConn comes into your building or what it means, and having that little underdog mentality,” Duffy said. “Then to see that pregame to postgame is pretty cool.”
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette women's basketball beats UConn for the first time
