Marquette University Athletics
Marquette University
Saint Louis
Marquette Stops Saint Louis, 67-31
2/23/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 23, 2001
MILWAUKEE - The Marquette women's basketball team saved its best defensive effort of the season for its penultimate regular season contest, downing Saint Louis, 67-31, in a pivotal game in Conference USA's positioning for the 2001 Conference USA Tournament presented by Kohl's and Nike. Marquette extended its lead on Saint Louis by two games as MU improved to 11-15 and 7-8 in conference. Saint Louis falls to 14-12 and 5-10 overall.
"It's getting to be crunch time at the end of the year and we don't want to go out losing," Marquette center Sarah Zawodny said. "Our main goal is to get ready for the tournament and go in ready to kick some tail."
Marquette raced out to a 26-16 lead by the end of the first half thanks to a 20-4 run through the first half. SLU ended the first half with a 6-0 run, but Marquette followed with an 18-0 run to start the second half an pulled away from the Billikens.
"We took them out of their game early," said Marquette head coach Terri Mitchell. "Our players kept coming after them and we took pride in our defensive effort.
The Golden Eagles' 36 point win was its largest of the season and its 31 points allowed was also a season best.
Marquette held Saint Louis to a 25 percent shooting night while hitting season best 48.3 percent of its shots.
"They've got kids who worked hard for 40 minutes and we just couldn't find the basket tonight," said SLU head coach Jill Pizzotti. "We had a tough time early because we got some good shots, but couldn't convert on our opportunities."
Freshman Katie O'Grady in her second-straight start scored a game high 12 points.
"I'm just trying to not get nervous and play with confidence while I'm out there," O'Grady said.
Junior Sarah Zawodny added 11 for MU. Despite only scoring eight points, MU leading scorer Heidi Bowman contributed with 13 rebounds.
Sophomore Christan Shelton scored nine for the visiting Billikens to lead her side.
"They've got kids who worked hard for 40 minutes and we just couldn't find the basket tonight," said SLU head coach Jill Pizzotti. "We had a tough time early because we got some good shots, but couldn't convert on our opportunities."
Marquette concludes its regular season on Sunday, Feb. 25 with a noon tip against Charlotte at the Bradley Center. The game is the last regular season game for seniors Bowman and Ebony Williams. All tickets are just $1.
