WBB Produces Gritty Effort In 71-56 Defeat To No. 1 UConn

Saturday, February 14

Milwaukee, WI

12 P.M. CT

Marquette University

16-10,10-7Big East

UConn

27-0,16-0Big East

UConn

Marquette

WBB Produces Gritty Effort In 71-56 Defeat To No. 1 UConn

2/14/2026 4:26:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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By: Communications

MILWAUKEE – In front of a standing room only crowd of 3,953 at the Al McGuire Center, the Marquette women's basketball team dropped a hard-fought 71-56 contest to No. 1 UConn on Saturday afternoon. The 71 points were the fewest the Huskies have scored this year while the 56 points were the most they have allowed to a BIG EAST opponent.

Lee Volker scored a team-high 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting, going 3-of-6 from deep. Skylar Forbes added 15 points and Jaidynn Mason had 11. The trio accounted for 22 of the team's 42 rebounds as they outrebounded UConn 42-29.

Marquette opened the game with the first five points, holding UConn without a bucket for the first four minutes, the longest the Huskies have gone without scoring to start a game this season. UConn countered though with the next eight over the ensuing three minutes. Despite shooting just 25.0% in the opening 10 minutes, the Golden Eagles trailed by just three, 13-10.

After UConn extended its advantage to seven early in the second, MU answered with seven straight. Five of those came from Forbes. An and-one from the junior that tied the game moved her across the 1,000-point mark for her career. Turnovers hit the Golden Eagles after that as the Huskies ramped up its pressure. The result was a 16-2 run before a steal in the backcourt by Bridgit Utberg in the final seconds of the half led to a layup for Volker.

Marquette trailed 36-24, the fewest points the Huskies had scored in a half this year.

Despite Sarah Strong scoring 15 of her 22 points in the third quarter after going 1-of-9 in the first half, the Golden Eagles remained within striking distance. A late bucket in the third by Azzi Fudd put MU's deficit at 13 heading into the fourth

The Huskies opened the final quarter with an 8-0 run to force a timeout from the Golden Eagles' bench as the deficit quickly rose to 21. MU scored on back-to-back trips going inside-out with Jada Bediako and Volker.

Marquette held UConn without a point during the final 3:37 of the game.

UP NEXT
Marquette will be off for the next seven days before traveling to Villanova on Feb. 22. Tipoff is slated for 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT and will air on Peacock and NBCSN.

NOTABLES

Saturday marked just the third time Marquette has hosted a No. 1 team (0-3).
Marquette is 0-9 all-time against No. 1. Eight of those contests came against UConn.
Marquette held UConn to its lowest point total in a first quarter this season (13), the lowest in a half (36) and the lowest in a game (71).
The loss was just MU's second of the year when outrebounding its opponent (13-2).
MU was outscored 28-11 in points of turnovers. The Golden Eagles have lost that stat in all 10 of its losses.
Skylar Forbes eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for her career. The junior finished with 15 points to give her 1,011 points in her career.
Jaidynn Mason collected a team-high eight rebounds, her first time leading Marquette on the glass this season.