MYSTERY BOX GAME: #10 Iowa State 84, Marquette 73

On Friday, Marquette women’s basketball squared off against #10 Iowa State down at Florida Gulf Coast’s arena in Fort Myers in the first game of the Coconut Hoops event. Between this game being exclusive to FloHoops, me letting my FloHoops subscription lapse when the Big East dropped Flo in favor of ESPN+, Marquette men’s basketball playing in Chicago, and me having tickets to that MU game against Oklahoma, I did not watch this contest against the Cyclones.

But I don’t think it takes a lot of deep research to analyze what happened.

With 8:47 left in the first quarter, Halle Vice scored for Marquette to make the score 5-4 favoring Iowa State.

With 7:47 left in the first quarter, ISU’s Jada Williams hit a pair of free throws to start off a 10-0 run by the Cyclones. 15-4 when Audi Crooks scored at the 5:25 mark, and Marquette was playing catchup the rest of the way. It was a five point game at the end of the first, and MU’s Jaidynn Mason converted a steal to a layup for the first bucket of the second quarter to cut the lead to three… but then the margin was 10 with 5:58 to go before halftime.

The margin ballooned to 14 before settling at 12 at the half, then up to 18 heading into the fourth quarter. Things never got past 21 points, but that’s where the lead was with 3:30 to play. That’s important here because Marquette closed the game on a 10-0 run that absolutely makes the game look much closer than it was for pretty much the entire second half.

That’s what happens when you give up a 10-0 run in the first quarter to a top 10 opponent.

Highlights, such as they are, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and FloSports:

Up Next: The loss sends the Golden Eagles over to the consolation game of Coconut Hoops. They’ll face Gonzaga at 10am Central time on Sunday, November 30, and once again, the game will be on FloHoops. The Bulldogs are coming off a 76-72 loss to Indiana in the other game at Alice Arena on Friday, which dropped them to 3-4 on the year and gave them their fourth loss in their last five games.