#MUWBB Travels to Villanova for Mid-Week Battle

VILLANOVA, Pa. – The Marquette women's basketball team will travel to Villanova for a game on Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 6 p.m. Central time. The game will be streamed on FloHoops with Matt Janus (play-by-play) and Christine Motta (color commentary) on the call from Finneran Pavilion.

The Golden Eagles (9-2, 6-1 BIG EAST) split the two on its east coast road trip last weekend, losing to SHU and beating SJU before defeating Georgetown on Wednesday. MU won its third straight game on Sunday, taking down Butler 95-57 on the road.

Although the team is anchored by seniors Selena Lott (17.0 ppg.) and Lauren Van Kleunen (13.4 ppg.), the team returns eight letterwinners and three starters from last year. This includes BIG EAST All-Freshman Team selection Camryn Taylor, who's averaging 10 points and 6.5 rebounds as a sophomore this year.

MU has gone with a nine-player rotation this season with sophomore Jordan King (8.9 ppg.) and leading rebounder Chloe Marotta (6.9 reb.) joining the starters.

Villanova (9-2, 4-2 BIG EAST) is led by first year head coach Denise Dillon, who returned to her alma mater to replace longtime Wildcat Harry Perretta, who retired following the 2019-20 season.

The Wildcats are led by sophomore Maddy Siegrist, the BIG EAST's leading scorer (24.0 ppg) and rebounder (11.0). She ranks 10th nationally in scoring and 19th in rebounding.

VU won all five of its non-conference games and is 4-2 in conference play this year. Its only losses are to nationally ranked UConn (90-52) and DePaul (94-82).

HOW TO FOLLOW:
The game will be streamed on FloHoops while Villanova.com will provide live stats. Make sure to follow along on Twitter @MarquetteWBB for live in-game updates.

GAME DETAILS
Marquette (9-2, 6-1 BIG EAST) at Villanova (9-2, 4-2 BIG EAST)
Finneran Pavilion
Villanova, Pa.
Wednesday, Jan. 27
6 p.m. CT
FloHoops

LIVE COVERAGE
LIVE STREAM | LIVE STATS | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM

LAST TIME OUT
• The Marquette women's basketball team defeated Butler 95-57 on Sunday afternoon at Hinkle Fieldhouse to earn its third straight conference victory and sixth road win of the year.
• Lauren Van Kleunen scored a season-high 21 points while Selena Lott (17 points), Claire Kaifes (12) and Camryn Taylor (11) joined her in double figures in another explosive offensive performance for the Golden Eagles (9-2, 6-1 BIG EAST).
• Marquette shot a season-best 62.3% (38-61) from the field and had 29 assists on its 38 made baskets. MU raced out to a 51-27 halftime lead and never looked back, keeping the Bulldogs (1-11, 1-10 BIG EAST) at arms length the rest of the way.
• Sophomore guard Claire Kaifes tallied her third game this season hitting multiple 3-pointers as she nailed four of MU's season-best nine threes on the afternoon.

STARTING FIVE
• Senior guard Selena Lott is just three points away from reaching the 1,000 career point threshold. She'd be the 30th Golden Eagle in program history to hit that mark.
• Junior Chloe Marotta was named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll for the first time in her career on Monday. She averaged 14.5 points per game last week and shot over 80% from the floor in two games.
• Coach Duffy coached her 100th career game as a head coach on Thursday, Dec. 10. She holds a 76-30 (.719) overall record, including a 33-10 (.767) mark at Marquette. Coach Duffy holds the best coaching record in program history through her first 40 games as the head coach. The next closest was Terri Mitchell (1996-14), who went 28-12 through her first 40 games.
• The Golden Eagles are 25-1 under Coach Duffy when leading at halftime and 16-1 when they turn the ball over fewer times than their opponent. Its also 20-2 when scoring more than 70 points under Coach Duffy and 21-2 when shooting more free throws than its opponent.
• In the 43 games of the Coach Duffy era, the Golden Eagles have out-rebounded their opponent in 40 of those games (31-9 record). They'll look to continue that streak this Wednesday.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS – ALL-TIME SERIES
• Wildcat head coach Denise Dillon returns to her alma mater to replace longtime Wildcat mentor Harry Perretta, who retired following the 2019-20 season.
• VU is led by sophomore standout Maddy Siegrist, who averages 24.0 points and 11.1 rebounds per game. She turned in one of the best freshman seasons in the history of VU last year when she averaged a team-best 19.3 points a team-high 9.1 rebounds per contest, earning first team All-BIG EAST honors.
• In the BIG EAST preseason predicted order of finish, Villanova was picked to finish seventh in the league standings with 44 points.
• Seniors Brianna Herlihy (14.8 ppg) and Sarah Mortenson (12.8 ppg) are Siegrist's two partners in crime. The three together combine to score 72% of the Wildcats points.
• MU leads the all-time series against Villanova 16-10. The Golden Eagles had won seven in a row from 2016-20 before falling to VU last year on the road. MU is 6-5 all-time on the road at Villanova.

PROMOTING UNITY
• Prior to their game on Wednesday, Jan. 20, the two teams and their coaching staffs met via Zoom and connected in breakout rooms to discuss current events going on in the United States and how to push for change in their respective communities. Key talking points included breakdowns of what happened in Washington D.C. last week, a push for unity, striving for change and fostering dialogue in your family.
• After the national anthem was played leading up to the game, both teams stood side-by-side on the center MU logo in a show of unity as the song "Lift Every Voice" is played. Both coaching staffs stood together on the sidelines before the game as well.
• Postgame, Marquette head coach Megan Duffy and Georgetown head coach James Howard participated in a postgame Zoom press conference to promote the importance of unity within their teams and communities as well as encouraging their players to have a voice in a safe space.

CAREER MILESTONE WATCH
• Selena Lott is three points away from hitting the 1,000 career point mark. Lauren Van Kleunen is 163 points away from hitting that threshold. They would be the 30th and 31st MU players to reach 1,000 career points.
• Selena Lott is a career 37.2% 3-point shooter, which ranks 7th all-time at MU. She's 20/45 (44%) from downtown this season.
• Lott is 19 steals away from a tie for 10th all-time in Golden Eagles history.

HAVING A LOTT OF FUN
• Senior guard Selena Lott is coming off a breakout season that helped her garner significant preseason acknowledgement both around the conference and nationally.
• So far in 2020-21, Lott leads the team in scoring (17.0), ranks second in assists (3.8) while ranking third in rebounding (5.5). She ranks in the top 10 in the BIG EAST in scoring, assists free throw % and 3FG made (2.4).
• The team's best all-around player, Lott has 42 double figure scoring games in her career. She notched her first career double double in a win at Belmont (12/13) grabbing a career-high 14 rebounds to go along with 18 points and five assists.
• Lott netted a season-best 30 points in a win at St. John's on Jan. 17 in her home state of New York.
• With 997 career points, Lott is just three points away from becoming the 30th Golden Eagle to reach the 1,000-point threshold.

WHAT'S NEXT?
• MU's next game will be at Creighton on Monday, Feb. 1 at 2 p.m. Central time. The Golden Eagles will also play games Wednesday at Georgetown, Friday against UConn and Sunday against DePaul.

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