WBB Hosts Butler Sunday Afternoon

FULL GAME NOTES

MILWAUKEE — The Marquette women's basketball team (5-2, 1-0 BIG EAST) continues its opening weekend of conference play on Sunday, welcoming Butler (0-7, 0-1 BIG EAST) to the Al McGuire Center on Dec. 5, at 2 p.m. (CT) in Milwaukee. The game will be broadcast by the BIG EAST Digital Network on FloHoops, with Patrick Reed (play-by-play) and Kyle Dlabay (analyst) on the call. Live stats are available at GoMarquette.com.

The Golden Eagles are off to a 5-2 start to the 2021-22 campaign, and opened BIG EAST play on Friday with a 76-48 home win over Xavier. MU led the contest from start-to-finish, getting off to a quick 16-4 start and never looking back. Four different Marquette players reached double figures in the scoring column, led by graduate guard Karissa McLaughlin's 20 points.

Marquette has finished each of the past four seasons as one of the top-two teams in the BIG EAST. In 2020-21, the Golden Eagles posted a 14-4 conference record, finishing behind only UConn in the final league standings.

The Bulldogs enters Sunday's contest in search of their first win after starting the 2021-22 campaign 0-7 and being outscored by an average margin of 21.4 points per game. Butler opened BIG EAST play on Friday against DePaul in Chicago, a 101-64 loss. They will be led by Kurt Godlevske, who is in his eighth season with the program.

Statistically, Butler has been led by a pair of freshmen this season. Freshman forward Alex Richard has been the team's top scorer, leading the team in scoring with 13.0 points per game, along ith 4.5 boards per contest. Freshman guard Zoe Jackson leads the squad with 4.3 assists per contest.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS

• Butler finished the 2020-21 season with a record of 3-17 overall, including a 1-8 mark in road contests.

• The Bulldogs went 3-15 in BIG EAST play to finish 10th in the conference standings. They lost to Providence in the first round of the BIG EAST Tournament, 63-61.

• Butler enter Sunday's contest with a 0-7 record on the season, having been outscored by an average margin of 21.4 points per contest. Most recently, they opened conference play with a 101-64 loss at DePaul.

• Freshman forward Alex Richard has been Butler's top scorer, averaging 13.0 points per contest.

• The Bulldogs average 59.3 points per game, 10th in the conference, but are shooting 43.7 percent (163-of-373) from the field, fourth in the BIG EAST.

ALL-TIME SERIES AGAINST BUTLER

• Sunday's matinee will mark the 26th meeting between Marquette and Butler. The Golden Eagles lead the all-time series, 16-9.

• Marquette is 8-4 all-time against the Bulldogs in Milwaukee.

• MU has won the last three meetings with Butler, winning by an average of 29.7 points in those games. The most recent win came on Feb. 10, as the Golden Eagles captured a 77-48 victory at home.

• Marquette has won 12 of the past 14 games in the series.

• The Bulldogs' last win in Milwaukee came on Feb. 22, 2019.

STARTING FIVE

• The Golden Eagles are 28-9 in BIG EAST action under Coach Duffy.

• Coach Duffy is off to the best coaching start through three seasons of any coach in program history. She boasts a 48-17 overall mark (.739) at Marquette.

• The Golden Eagles are 38-1 under Coach Duffy when leading at halftime and 27-2 when they turn the ball over fewer times than their opponent.

• MU is 27-3 when scoring more than 70 points under Coach Duffy and 33-3 when shooting more free throws than its opponent.

• In the 65 games of the Coach Duffy era, the Golden Eagles have out-rebounded their opponent in 56 of those games (44-12 record).

GOLDEN EAGLES OPEN BIG EAST PLAY WITH WIN

• Marquette is coming off a win in its opening game of BIG EAST play, a 76-48 home win over Xavier on Friday.

• The Golden Eagles led the game from start-to-finish after taking an early 16-4 lead and never looking back.

• MU was led by Karissa McLaughlin, who finished the game a perfect 5-of-5 from behind the arc and scored 20 points. Liza Karlen recorded career-high marks of 14 points and 11 rebounds for her first career double-double.

• Marquette finished the game shooting 46.9 percent (30-of-64) from the field, and a season-best 58.3 percent (7-of-12) from 3-point range.

KING HITTING HER STRIDE

• Junior guard Jordan King has taken another step forward for Marquette this season, averaging career-best marks in points (11.9), rebounds (4.1), assists (4.3) and minutes per game (31.6) to start 2021-22.

• King has scored 10-plus points in four-straight games, including back-to-back 16-point outings against Colorado and Middle Tennessee.

• In the past four contests, King averages 14.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.

Against MTSU, King played a career-high 42 minutes while totaling 16 points, seven boards and four assists, and shooting 7-of-11 from the field.

CAREER MILESTONE WATCH

• Lauren Van Kleunen, who hit the 1,000-point career scoring plateau during last season's BIG EAST Tournament semifinal game against Creighton, continues to creep up the career leader board in a few different statistical categories.

• With 133 career appearances, Van Kleunen is set to tie the program's all-time mark for career games played in the team's game against Butler. She currently sits at second all-time behind only Angel Robinson's 134 games played in a Marquette uniform.

• Earlier this season against Southern, Van Kleunen became just the 20th player in MU's history to reach 600 career rebounds. She currently has 636 career boards, 18th all-time.

• LVK currently ranks 27th all-time in scoring with 1,123 career points, and is 154 points away from reaching the top-20. She is 266 points from cracking the top-15.