(MARQUETTE COMMUNICATIONS) – The Marquette women’s basketball team hosts its final regular-season home game on Wednesday night, facing Xavier at the Al McGuire Center. The Golden Eagles are looking to snap its current four-game skid against a Musketeer team that MU held to 54 points in Cincinnati on New Year’s Day.
Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT.
THE STARTING FIVE
- Prior to Wednesday’s game, the Marquette women’s basketball program will honor its seven departing seniors (Ayuen Akot, Abbey Cracknell, Jaidynn Mason, Kennedi Perkins, Olivia Porter, Bridget Utberg, Lee Volker) and five managers (Avery Cmiel, Jack DeGeorge, Joe Haderlien, Payton Scholl, Aden Zager) for their contributions throughout their careers with the Golden Eagles.
- Marquette enters Wednesday’s contest riding a four-game losing streak after falling 64-39 at Villanova on Feb. 14. This came after the team’s longest winning streak of the season at five. The losing streak is MU’s longest since the start of the 2015-16 season.
- With Skylar Forbes crossing the 1,000-point mark for her career on Feb. 14, she joined Jaidynn Mason as the Golden Eagles’ 1,000-point scorers. While Mason accomplished the feat across two programs (Southern Illinois and Marquette), Forbes scored every one of her points at MU. Lee Volker has a chance to join her teammates in the 1,000-point club as the graduate currently sits at 954 points.
- Despite not having posted a double-double in the past four games, Halle Vice continues to lead the BIG EAST with 10. It is two more than Creighton’s Grace Boffeli and three ahead of UConn’s Sarah Strong. The 10 double-doubles ranks 35th in the NCAA.
- Marquette’s strength this season comes in its experience and continuity as the program is the only one in Division I women’s college basketball to return all of its players from the 2024-25 season. Though everyone returned, the Golden Eagles have had just two games this season (Winthrop, Georgetown) with everyone available (excluding J.J. Barnes and Aryelle Stevens who were ruled out for the year heading into the season). Starting guard Olivia Porter was lost for the season due to an injury sustained on Feb. 1.
BY THE NUMBERS
55 – A strong offensive team through much of the season, Marquette’s offense has sputtered in recent weeks, being held to an average of 55.0 points per game during regulation in its last four.
19 – Marquette heads into its matchup with Xavier having won the last 19 games in the series.
398 – Marquette’s seven seniors have made a combined 398 appearances for the Golden Eagles. Lee Volker leads the group with 91. The graduate student has played in 130 games during her five-year career (Marquette/Duke).
DOMINANCE AGAINST THE MUSKETEERS
- Marquette and Xavier will meet for the 34th time in their history.
- MU holds the lead in the series at 26-7.
- The first 14 games in the series were split at 7-7 before the Golden Eagles had won the last 19 in a row.
START ON THE FRONT FOOT
While some teams can start slow and pick up steam in games, Marquette has struggled a bit in doing that. Eleven times this season, the Golden Eagles opponents’ have scored first. MU is 2-9 in those games compared to 14-2 when scoring first.
- The tip has also been an indicator as the Golden Eagles are 1-6 this season when losing the tipoff. At Butler on Jan. 25, Marquette won its first game of the year when losing the tip.
- Marquette has dropped its last four games. Three of those games have seen MU both lose the tip and not score first.
PROTECTING THE AL
Since Cara Consuegra took over last season, the Golden Eagles have been dominant at the Al McGuire Center. In 28 games on its home court, Marquette is 22-6.
- This season, MU is 10-4 at home with eight of those wins coming by double digits. Four of those wins have been by 25 or more.
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