MU Hosts Donate Life Game Thursday Promoting Organ Donation

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette women's basketball team is back in action as the squad hosts St. Francis College Brooklyn on Thursday with tip-off set for 7 p.m. CT.

The game can be streamed live and for free at GoMarquette.com with Chris Reisner calling the action from the Al McGuire Center.

Thursday is the Golden Eagles' Donate Life game. Players from both squads will don green shooting shirts encouraging awareness for organ donation and a plea to "Share Your Spare" in reference to live kidney donation. Marquette is partnering with Donate Life Wisconsin to promote awareness of organ donation, including the paired exchange donation program. The cause is near and dear to the Golden Eagles as senior Tori McCoy needs a kidney transplant, while suffering from FSGS, Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.

The Golden Eagles (1-0) opened a new era of Marquette basketball on Tuesday with a 70-48 victory over Morgan State in head coach Megan Duffy's first win at the helm of the Blue and Gold. Junior Selena Lott stepped into her role as a leader on court with a career-high 24 points, including four three-pointers, while senior Isabelle Spingola totaled 13 points. Freshman Camryn Taylor added 10 points in her collegiate debut, while BIG EAST Preseason Freshman of the Year Jordan King dished out seven assists with nine points.

Marquette will play its third game of opening week on Sunday, Nov. 10 when the squad hosts Illinois State at 2 p.m. CT.

FOLLOW THE ACTION

LIVE STATS: https://gomarquette.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary
WATCH: https://gomarquette.com/watch/?Live=96&type=Live

PROMOS

DONATE LIFE: Marquette is partnering with Donate Life Wisconsin to promote awareness of organ donation, including the paired exchange donation program. Senior Tori McCoy is a focus of the cause as she needs a kidney transplant, while suffering from FSGS, Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.

OPPONENT

ST. FRANCIS COLLEGE BROOKLYN (0-1): The Terriers also opened the 2019-20 campaign on Tuesday, falling to Stony Brook, 86-73. A trio of players recorded double figures led by 21 points from Jade Johnson and 20 points from Nevena Dimitrijevic. Ally Lasen scored 15 points and grabbed eight boards for St. Francis.
The Terriers set a program-record 12 wins in the Northeast Conference last season. The squad has just three returners and welcomes eight newcomers.

This is the first meeting between St. Francis College and Marquette.

WHAT THE TEAM IS SAYING:
On the first game…
"Overall you never know with the first game what is going to happen or what to expect. There's not a lot of prep, but I was really proud of our upperclassmen. Selena Lott was terrific tonight, Camryn Taylor was a great spark coming off the bench. We're going to be a work in progress as I always talk about, but I am really thrilled to get the first win."
-Megan Duffy
Head Coach

STORYLINES:

SEASON OPENING WIN: Tuesday kicked off the 45^th season of Marquette women's basketball and the Golden Eagles are now 27-17 overall in season openers and 1-0 in the Megan Duffy era.
COLLEGIATE DEBUTS: Five of Marquette's six freshmen made their collegiate debuts on Tuesday with Jordan King earning a starting role. King led MU with seven assists, while Camryn Taylor provided a spark off the bench scoring 10 points in just 14 minutes of action. Taylor Valladay, Nirel Lougbo and Destiny Strother also saw time in the season opener.
A CAREER DAY: Junior Selena Lott shined against Morgan State in a new role as one of the Golden Eagles veteran's. Lott tallied a career-high 24 points and dished out six assists in 35 minutes of action. Lott's previous career high was 19 points scored at Providence on March 3, 2019.
NEW TEAM, NEW LOOK: New head coach Megan Duffy comes to Marquette after spending the last two seasons at the University of Miami (Ohio). She left Oxford with a record of 44-20 (.687), leading her team to a pair of Women's National Invitation Tournament appearances and back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since the 1980's.
PRESEASON ACCOLADES: Junior Selena Lott and freshmen Jordan King were honored by the BIG EAST as they dished out their preseason awards. Lott was tabbed to the preseason All-BIG EAST squad as she is Marquette's most prominent scorer from last season, averaging 9.0 ppg in BIG EAST play. She has also asserted herself as one of the best defenders in the conference totaling 67 steals and 17 blocks last season. King was named as the preseason BIG EAST freshman of the year. The Rockton, Illinois native scored 2,505 points in her time on Hononegah High School, setting a NIC-10 Conference record.

Keep up with Marquette women's basketball through social media by following on Twitter (@MarquetteWBB) and Instagram (@MarquetteWBB) and `liking' on Facebook (/MarquetteWBB).