Golden Eagles’ dance session quickly ends
The NCAA Tournament experience again ended early for the Marquette women’s basketball team.
The 10th-seeded Golden Eagles hung around for most of the game, but seventh-seeded Mississippi pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 67-55 victory on Saturday at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, Indiana.
MU fell to 0-3 in the NCAA Tournament in head coach Megan Duffy’s five seasons as head coach. The Golden Eagles would also have likely made the 2020 tournament, but it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
MU will have to retool this offseason. The team will lose fifth-year players Jordan King and Frannie Hottinger. Fellow starters Rose Nkumu and Liza Karlen were honored on Senior Night, but they do have the option of using a fifth season.
“I can’t say enough about my team and their effort and their grit today and really across the whole season,” Duffy said. “I feel for our seniors right now who won’t get another shot to play a game. But just overall just so proud of our young women and what they’ve accomplished this season.”
The game was back-and-forth, with MU taking its last lead at 41-40 on a layup from Nkumu with 5:57 left in the third quarter.
But the Golden Eagles (23-9) went four minutes without scoring to let the Rebels (24-8) take the lead for good.
Scoring droughts have been an issue for MU this season.
“Every game is a little different with why you can’t score or why there’s some reasons where you have really good looks and they don’t go in,” Duffy said. “And that’s the game of basketball, and then sometimes you have to really look yourself in the mirror and say, hey, we could have done better to execute.”
Ole Miss held a 49-46 advantage at the end of the third quarter. MU got within 55-50 with 5:49 to play, but then committed back-to-back turnovers and the Rebels pulled away.
Liza Karlen led the Golden Eagles with 19 points, and Nkumu added 18.
“I think just taking advantage when we could get downhill,” Nkumu said. “And I know Liza was battling in the paint, trying to get those paint touches for us.”
MU committed 19 turnovers. “We made a few mental mistakes, I thought, in that little stretch of that beginning of that fourth quarter on just some small things,” Duffy said. “Whether we missed an open teammate, we had an opportunity to score in transition and didn’t execute.”
Madison Scott paced Mississippi with 20 points.
Both King and Hottinger battled foul trouble. They combined for just seven points.
“We’re nowhere without those two players,” Duffy said. “So I just really feel like one game doesn’t define what they’ve done for us.
“Frannie in her fifth year here, and then obviously Jordan, what she’s meant to this program and just her durability for us. She struggled through injury all year this year, and the fact that she’s playing and had a shot to play in the Big Dance is something we’re just so grateful for.