WBB Travels To Butler For Sunday Afternoon Tilt

MILWAUKEE - The Marquette women's basketball team heads to Indiana this weekend after snapping its two-game skid with a one-point win on Wednesday night at St. John's. The Golden Eagles will look to complete the season sweep of Butler after defeating the Bulldogs on Dec. 7 (80-55).

Tipoff from Hinkle Fieldhouse is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT on Sunday with the game streaming on ESPN+.

THE STARTING FIVE

Beginning on Jan. 14, Marquette began a stretch of playing four of six games on the road. Butler will be its third game away from home during the two-and-a-half week stretch.
While Marquette has relied much of the season on its offense to win games, outscoring teams by 16 or more points in nine of its 12 wins, the Golden Eagles needed its defense at St. John's on Wednesday. MU scored just 56 points, winning its first game of the year when scoring less than 60 points.
With two of the team's top scorers dealing with injuries in recent weeks, Lee Volker has stepped up her production in recent weeks. The graduate student, who slides into whatever role the Golden Eagles need, has averaged 15.7 points per game in the last three contests while shooting 50% overall from the field and from 3.
Slowed in recent weeks, Halle Vice remains the BIG EAST leader in double-doubles with seven. Five of those have come in the last eight games. Without one double-double in her first three BIG EAST games, Vice has four in her last six league contests.
Marquette's strength this season comes in its experience and continuity as the program is the only one in Division I women's college basketball to return all of its players from the 2024-25 season.

BY THE NUMBERS
33.3 - While Marquette is shooting 38.1% from 3 this season, MU hasn't shot above 33.3% in its last four games. MU has been held to four of its six lowest 3-point shooting games since shooting 61.1% versus Villanova.
1 - Marquette has won just one game this season when its opponent scores first (1-6).
20 - Marquette has scored 20 points off turnovers in each of its last two games. MU is 6-1 this season when scoring at least 20 points off its opponents' miscues.

FLASHING BACK - GAME 19 AT ST. JOHN'S

Marquette earned its first win of the season when scoring less than 60 points.
MU won its second game this season when trailing at the half (2-5).
MU earned its first win of the year when shooting below its opponent after shooting 36.2% (1-4).
With her first basket of the game, Jaidynn Mason eclipsed 1,000 points for her collegiate career.
After two games without reaching double figures, Skylar Forbes finished with a team-high 12 points.
Volker's double figure game was 10th of teh season and third in a row.

HISTORY WITH BUTLER

While last year's meetings with Butler were separated by a combined five points, the series hasn't been close during the past decade-plus. The Golden Eagles have won 20 of the past 23 games with only six of those wins being by single digits.
On the opposite end, eight of MU's 20 wins have come by 20 or more points. That number includes this season's 80-55 win on Dec. 7 in Milwaukee. Butler's three wins have been by 2, 4 and 6.
Marquette leads the all-time series 24-10 after the Bulldogs won the first four games in the series.

START ON THE FRONT FOOT
While some teams can start slow and pick up steam in games, Marquette has struggled a bit in doing that. Seven times this season, the Golden Eagles opponents' have scored first. MU is 1-6 in those games compared to 11-1 when scoring first.

The tip has also been an indicator the Golden Eagles as they are 0-3 this season when losing the tipoff.

DIVERSIFYING THE OPTIONS
While Skylar Forbes is the Golden Eagles' top scorer at 15.3 points per game, three others have shown that they too can carry the scoring load. Two of MU's other starters--Halle Vice, Lee Volker--are also averaging double figures. Jaidynn Mason is just outside of double digits at 9.8 points per game.

Each of the four have led MU in scoring this season and all four have each posted at least two 20-point games.

A WALKING DOUBLE-DOUBLE
Recording her seventh double-double of the season on Jan. 14, Halle Vice continues to lead the BIG EAST in the category. The junior had just one double-double through the first five weeks of the season but has recorded six during an eight-game stretch from Dec. 14-Jan. 14.

Her stretch of four straight games (Dec. 20-Jan. 4) with a double-double is the longest stretch of consecutive double-doubles by a Golden Eagle since Erika Davenport had a double-double in five straight games in 2019 (Jan. 11-25).
Vice's seven double-doubles ranks 32nd in the NCAA.

1K JAI
In the 102nd game of her collegiate career, Jaidynn Mason eclipsed 1,000 points with her first bucket at St. John's on Jan. 21. Mason has scored 1,005 points in her career with 451 of those coming during her two seasons with the Golden Eagles.

Mason is the only current Golden Eagle to have scored 1,000 points in their career. Skylar Forbes could join her later this season as the junior is 85 points away.