• MU Women beat A-10 Newcomer

    It was a good litmus test for the Marquette women's basketball team that was needed to measure how they did in the regular season home opener, Saturday, against Atlantic-10 newcomer Butler. They passed with flying colors in a 73-62 win.

    Butler jumped to the A-10 Conference after their long stay in the Horizon League. This season, the Bulldogs are picked to finish 12th in their league. If they would've had their leading scorer from last year in Sarah Hamm, it would've been a different ballgame. Hamm is out for the season after tearing her ACL.
    You would expect a first game to be a little out of control with the turnovers and other mental breakdowns, but there was something that the Golden Eagles took away from their first win of the season that they can learn from between now and their next game on the road, Nov. 18, at Georgia Tech.

    "I thought we obviously had moments where weren't playing well, but we were gutting through (the game)," Marquette head coach Terri Mitchell said. "We played so well as a team. We're very unselfish. We want to get it done, together. We don't have any superstars. We look to each other."

    The Golden Eagles have one senior in Sarina Simmons. Mitchell gave one pointer to Simmons, a Milwaukee King product, before the season started. "(Sarina and I) texted (Friday night) to each other, just about (having) no regrets, this is it. I don't want her to look back and say, 'shoulda, woulda, coulda, one game at a time.' "

    Marquette will need Simmons to play on a consistent basis and not show up one game and slack off the next. Junior Katie Young looked confident in her scoring abilities and could really step up and help in that department. She had 10 points in the game and was 2-for-5 from 3-point range. "Katie had a great week of practice, and it showed it," Mitchell said. "Her passion on the court was amazing."

    This could be Young's breakout year despite not starting. Mitchell could start her, but she prefers Young to be that spark off the bench as a sixth man. "Confidence comes from practice," Young said, "and I practice my shots just shooting in general, to be more confident in seeing the ball go in the basket in practice and in the game."

    One area that Marquette will have to shore up is not allowing their opponents offensive rebounds. Butler had 14 in the game, which led to 11 second chance points. Another area is avoiding foul trouble. Simmons and Katherine Plouffe had four each and Apiew Ojuju had three. And when the post players get in foul trouble, the Golden Eagles may have to ask Young and Arlesia Morse to pick up the scoring.

    Overall, it was a good start to the beginning of the season for Marquette in a heavy-packed non-conference schedule. They won't be back at the Al McGuire Center unntil Dec. 1 in a home game against Fordham.