WBB Suffers 61-48 Loss at No. 8 UConn

STORRS, Conn. — The Marquette women's basketball team (9-5, 2-3 BIG EAST) lost to No. 8 UConn Saturday afternoon, falling 61-48 inside of Gampel Pavilion.

"I was really happy with our fight today," said Marquette head coach Megan Duffy. "I thought after we got off to a rough start with a 9-0 run right off the bat we came back and settled in. At one point in the fourth quarter we cut it to six. I just really felt our effort was much better than a couple of games in the past and now we need to figure out how to bounce back."

After getting out to a slow offensive start and trailing 9-0 early on in the first quarter, Marquette found some offensive rhythm with back-to-back triples by freshman guard Emily La Chapell, who made her second career start in the contest. MU eventually cut the Husky lead to as few as four points, before going into the locker room trailing 28-22 at the half.

Senior guard Jordan King, who leads the team's scoring efforts this season, was limited to just eight minutes in the first half with early foul trouble.

UConn extended its lead with a 16-13 third quarter to go up 44-35. MU then used a strong start to the fourth to cut the deficit to just six points, but that's as close as the score would get as the Huskies closed out the game shooting 61.5 percent (8-of-13) in the final quarter to secure the win.

Junior forward Liza Karlen had a strong bounceback performance for the Golden Eagles, leading all MU players with 15 points to go along with a team-high six rebounds. She was joined in double-figures by La Chapell and Chloe Marotta, who finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

UConn (11-2, 4-0 BIG EAST) was paced by Lou Lopez Senechal, who finished with 22 points.

With her 131st career appearance, Chloe Marotta moved into third in all-time games played at Marquette. She now sits tied with Marissa Thrower (2005-09), Svetlana Kovalenko (2004-08) and Amani Wilborn (2015-19).
UConn's 61 points were its second-fewest scored in any game this season.
Marquette was led in scoring by Liza Karlen who finished with 15 points along with a team-best six rebounds. This was her 11th double-figure scoring performance of the season, and the 30th of her career.
Emily La Chapell finished with 11 points, the second-career double-figure scoring game for the freshman.
La Chapell made the second start of her career and played a career-high 36 minutes.
The starting lineup of King, Nkumu, La Chapell, Marotta, Karlen was the fourth unique starting lineup MU has used this season.
Marquette finished the game shooting 34.5 percent (20-of-58) from the floor, 27.8 percent (5-of-18) from 3-point range and 75.0 percent (3-of-4) from the free throw line.
With the loss, Marquette falls to 0-16 all-time against UConn.

UP NEXT: Marquette plays part two of a three-game road trip as it travels to Chicago to face DePaul on Wednesday, Jan. 4 at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast by BIG EAST Digital Network on FloHoops, with live stat links available on GoMarquette.com.

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).