Marquette WBB Defeats No. 4 UConn 59-52

MILWAUKEE — The Marquette women's basketball team (16-8, 9-6 BIG EAST) took down No. 4 UConn Wednesday evening inside of the Al McGuire Center, earning a 59-52 victory.

"In some ways I'm speechless, but my next emotion is that I'm just incredibly proud of these women and what they did tonight. This is a historic win for Marquette women's basketball," said Marquette head coach Megan Duffy. "We knew we were up against a buzzsaw with Connecticut losing on Sunday, we knew there were going to be some major blows and punches thrown around, but I thought our girls were just tremendous staying together and fighting."

In what was Marquette's first-ever win over the Huskies and just its second win over a top-5 team in program history, the Golden Eagles used suffocating defense throughout to secure the win, holding UConn to a season-low 52 points while forcing 19 turnovers.

After surrendering the first six points of the game, Marquette bounced back with a 10-2 run to jump on top. MU didn't trail again the rest of the night, leading for over 33 minutes of action and seeing its lead stretch as large as 13 points in the second quarter. While the Huskies clawed back into the game to eventually tie it midway through the third, the Golden Eagles remained in control.

The senior duo of Jordan King and Chloe Marotta delivered for Marquette once again, combining for 37 points in the contest. Marotta went for a near double-double of 19 points and nine boards. Junior forward Liza Karlen had a strong night on the glass, delivering a team-high 10 rebounds.

On the defensive end, junior guard Rose Nkumu and Karlen locked things down, recording career-highs of five and four steals, respectively.

UConn (21-4, 13-1 BIG EAST) was led by Dorka Juhasz, who scored a team-high 15 points to go along with 11 rebounds.

Prior to this season, Marquette had never beaten an AP Top-5 team. This was its second such win this season, after defeating No. 3 Texas on Nov. 19.
This was Marquette's first-ever win over UConn, the two programs having met 16 times prior.
Marquette became the first team to defeat UConn in the game immediately following a Husky loss since March 17, 1993.
Prior to tonight, UConn had won 189 of its past 190 conference games.
With nine rebounds in the contest, Chloe Marotta moved up to No. 8 on Marquette's all-time rebounding list, passing Lisa Oldenburg (1996-00). She now has 840 boards in her career.
Marotta finished the night with 19 points, nine rebounds, three assists a steal and two blocks. This was her 37th-career double-figure scoring game, and the 19th of the season.
Liza Karlen brought down 10 rebounds in the contest, her fifth double-figure rebounding game of the season and the 15th of her career.
With 18 points, Jordan King recorded her 20th double-figure scoring game of the season, and the 63rd of her career.
Rose Nkumu and Liza Karlen each posted career-highs in the steals column, finishing with five and four, respectively.
UConn's 52 points were a season-low, its previous low of 60 points coming at No. 7 Notre Dame on Dec. 4.
Marquette held a 27-22 lead at the half, and is now 69-3 under Coach Duffy when taking a lead into halftime.
With the win, Marquette improves to 11-2 at home this season.
Marquette finished the game shooting 36.7 percent (22-of-60) from the floor, 20.0 percent (4-of-20) from 3-point range and 68.8 percent (11-of-16) from the free throw line.

UP NEXT: Marquette heads on the road after a weekend bye to face Providence on Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 6 p.m. (CT) at Alumni Hall. The game will be broadcast by BIG EAST Digital Network on FloHoops, with a live stat link 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).