Butler honored five players on senior day — Rosemarie Dumont, Kendall Wingler, Abby Stoddard, Anna Mortag and Rachel Kent. Photo courtesy of Butler Athletics.
SAWYER GOLDWEIN | STAFF REPORTER | sgoldwein@butler.edu
The women’s basketball team’s regular season ended with a 74-52 loss at the hands of Marquette on March 2.
First-year guard Karsyn Norman led Butler with 10 points on the day, tying her second-highest scoring output of the season. Junior guard Ari Wiggins and sophomore guard Jordan Meulemans each added eight points for the Dawgs.
Taking care of the basketball
Butler didn’t shoot the ball efficiently against Marquette, but the true deciding factor in the game was the turnovers. The Dawgs gave the ball away a whopping 20 times, compared to just seven turnovers by the Golden Eagles.
The turnover discrepancy resulted in an 11 point Marquette advantage in points off turnovers. Perhaps more importantly, it was a primary cause for the Golden Eagles shooting 59 field goal attempts to Butler’s 46.
Marquette capitalized off of their 13 extra shots, shooting 45.8% from the field throughout the game, including at least 20 points in the first and fourth quarters.
Giveaways are something the Bulldogs are going to have to work on if they want to make a run in the Big East Tournament.
A season in review
Butler will head into the Big East Tournament with a 14-15 overall record. The Dawgs have a conference record of 6-12, landing them in ninth place in the final Big East standings.
It’s not good enough for an NCAA Tournament bid — unless, of course, the Bulldogs manage to run the table in the conference tournament — but by most qualitative measures, the 2023-24 season has been successful for Butler.
From a statistical standpoint, Butler can take pride in improving on last season’s 11-19 record, but the signs for optimism go beyond that. The Dawgs have closed out the regular season by winning five of their last seven games. That positive momentum is encouraging in and of itself, but when you factor in the fact that all three first-years on the roster have started every game of that hot streak, things look even more promising.
The first-year trio — consisting of Norman, wing Riley Makalusky and forward Cristen Carter — can be expected to be key contributors for the Dawgs for years to come.
