It's all over for MU women, Green Bay

Special to The Journal

State College, Pa. Marquette coach Jim Jabir said his team "probably has the biggest heart in America."

Unfortunately for the Golden Eagles, heart alone won't win a first-round game in the NCAA women's basketball Tournament.

Seeded 10th, Marquette shot woefully - including 3 for 20 from three-point range - and lost 77-63 to seventh-seeded North Carolina State Friday night at Penn State, site of the Midwest sub-regional.

Marquette, which had come back from double- figure deficits to win its last four games, never led in a game it trailed by 10-0 after just two minutes.

"We dug our hole right away," Jabir said.

North Carolina State got off to a fast start thanks to near perfect long-range shooting. The Wolfpack connected on 9 of 11 three-point shots in the first half. Sophomore guard Jennifer Howard, the best three-point shooter in the Atlantic Coast Conference, hit all four of her attempts and Umeki Webb was a perfect 2 for 2.

"It was like everything they threw up went in," Marquette forward Clare Barnard said. The Golden Eagles never closed the margin to less than four the rest of the way and never got closer than eight points in the second half.

Even so, North Carolina State coach Kay Yow didn't relax.

"Sometimes, you get the early lead and it just gets chopped away," she said. "So it didn't phase me one way or another. I knew we had to keep working for 40 minutes."

Marquette center Christine Kennedy dominated inside, scoring 23 points and pulling down 10 rebounds. The inside was the one part of the Marquette strategy that worked as Kennedy helped North Carolina State's superb freshman Chasity Weston to the bench early with foul trouble. Weston, the ACC freshman of the year, played just 20 minutes and scored seven points, 10 below her team-leading average. She fouled out with 3:54 remaining.

"We wanted to go at 44 {Weston} right away," Kennedy said. "I got some good looks at the basket."

She just didn't get enough of them. Kennedy converted 7 of 12 shots. She and Barnard, who was 5 for 10 from the field, were the only two Golden Eagles who approached respectable shooting percentages. Barnard finished with 15 points and 10 boards.

Marquette shot 31% in the first half, trailing by 43-29 at halftime, and 36% for the game. The Wolfpack hit 48% for the game and 15 of 29 in the first half which they closed with a 17-8 run.

"What you saw out there was paralysis of the brain," Jabir said. "We're the kind of team that, when we shoot well, we're dangerous and when they're not falling, we're scary."

Lori Goerlitz, Marquette's career leader in three-point baskets, was 0 for 9 from that range and 2 for 12 overall.

The Golden Eagles did cut the deficit to eight midway through the second half but gave up five straight points on a Howard basket and a three-point play from Webb.

"We'd come back," Jabir said, "then give up an offensive rebound on a foul shot . . . and were down seven or nine. That's something we can control and didn't."

The young Wolfpack, meanwhile, won their first NCAA Tournament game since their last appearance, in 1991.

Marquette was left to reflect on its 19-12 season, which included a Great Midwest Tournament title.

"We lost a lot of games I felt we should have won," Barnard said. "But, overall, our main goal was to make it here and I guess we have to be satisfied with that. It's tough to come here and lose. It would have been nice to get to the second round. Nothing is ever enough."

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