UConn women’s basketball stunned by Marquette, 59-52

UConn women’s basketball’s most impressive streak is over. After losing to South Carolina Sunday, the Huskies fell on the road to the Marquette Golden Eagles, 59-52 — marking the first time they’ve lost back-to-back games since March 1993, a streak of 1,083 games. It’s also the first time Marquette has ever beaten UConn in 17 tries.

The Huskies finished with a season-low point total in the defeat and went just 3-13 from three. They were visibly exhausted throughout the game and made mental mistakes throughout the contest, turning the ball over 19 times.

Dorka Juhász had a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds while Aubrey Griffin and Lou Lopez Sénéchal each had 12 points apiece.

UConn led early but fell behind by the end of the first quarter and played from behind the rest of the contest. The Huskies got within two with under eight minutes to go but couldn’t close the gap.

UConn opened the game with back-to-back easy buckets and didn’t look like it would face much resistance from the hosts. The Huskies led 8-2 before Jordan King came alive, scoring eight-straight points on her own to give Marquette its first lead of the day going into the media timeout. The Golden Eagles extended that advantage to six after one thanks largely to six points off UConn’s six turnovers.

It didn’t get better in the second quarter. Marquette built a 21-2 run to push the gap over double-digits as the Huskies continued to turn the ball over and made mental mistakes on both ends of the floor.

UConn finally started to turn it around with a 12-2 run to cut the deficit to three, though Marquette pushed that back to five at the half. The two teams traded runs in the third quarter, but the Huskies couldn’t find the run to get back ahead and went into the final period down by one.

The Golden Eagles pushed it back to three with a basket early in the fourth but a layup from Lopez Sénéchal got UConn back within two. That’s as close as it would get, though. When the Huskies needed a basket, they came up short. When they needed a stop, they couldn’t get one.

UConn got it back within a two-possession game with 90 seconds left but made a brutal turnover that resulted in a Marquette basket the other way to extend the Golden Eagles’ lead to six. The Huskies had to foul over the final minute but couldn’t mount the late comeback and fell by four.

It was an uncharacteristically bad performance from UConn, though it was obvious that the injuries, lack of depth and brutal schedule over the last two weeks finally caught up to the team. Marquette also came in with a strong game plan and executed it to perfection to pull off the upset.

Next, UConn will look to get back on track when it travels to Georgetown on Saturday.