St. John's women knocked out of Big East Tournament

Chloe Marotta scored six of her 18 points and Liza Karlen had four of her 16 points to combine for a 10-0 fourth-quarter run as Marquette pulled away from St. John's to a 57-47 victory in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals Saturday in Uncasville, Connecticut.

St. John's (22-8), the fourth seed, will now await a possible at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament. Coming into Saturday, the Red Storm were ranked No. 55 in the nation in the NCAA's NET rankings. 

Marquette (21-9), the No. 5 seed, moves on to face UConn in Sunday's semifinals.

Rayven Peeples hit a layup with 7:33 left in the game to give the Red Storm their last lead at 43-42.

Marotta and Karlen then went on their 10-0 run, capped by a Marotta short jumper with 1:54 left for a 52-43 lead.

St. John's Danielle Patterson got the deficit to six points with a jumper with 49 seconds left, but Marquette's Rose Nkumu and Jordan King each hit two free throws in the final 46 seconds to close it out.

King had 16 points and five assists and Marotta had 14 rebounds for Marquette.

Mimi Reid had 11 points and Kadaja Bailey had 10 points to lead St. John's, which shot 5-for-11 on three-pointers (45.5%) but only 38% overall (19-for-50). Peeples had six points and 10 rebounds.

Marquette was 14-for-17 at the free-throw line and the Red Storm just 4-for-6.

UConn 69, Georgetown 39: Azzi Fudd eased her way back onto the court with 10 points in 17 minutes for the No. 9 Huskies, and Aaliyah Edwards and Dorka Juhasz led the way with double-doubles.

Edwards had 19 points and 13 rebounds. Juhasz had 13 points and 10 rebounds and Lou Lopez Senechal added 14 points for the top-seeded Huskies (27-5), who have won six of their last seven games.

Fudd returned from a pair of knee injuries that cost her 22 games this season, including the previous 14.

“It's been tough having to be on the sidelines so much, having to watch everyone struggle through all the ups and downs they've been through," Fudd said. “But that was my motivation just to keep working hard. My goal was to get back on the floor.”

Kelsey Ransom had 12 points to lead Georgetown (14-17).

The Huskies shut down the Hoyas offense, holding Georgetown to 20% shooting from the floor (13-for-64). That included allowing just five baskets on 36 shots before halftime and a single field goal in the second quarter — a jumper by Ransom that came more than eight minutes into the period.

UConn led 35-12 at the half and pushed the lead to as many as 33 points in the third quarter.

Coach Geno Auriemma said having Fudd on the floor made a difference for the Huskies, who hadn't won a game by more than 10 points since January.

“I don't know that anybody on our team can have a similar impact that she can,” he said. “She's going to play good defense. She had four assists today and she's going to make shots. So the impact that she's going to have on the team, you can't calculate the meaning of that because it's just everything.”

With the return of Fudd, the Huskies had 10 available players to start a game for the first time since November. But that lasted less than a half. Caroline Ducharme, who missed 13 games this season with a concussion, took another blow to her head in the second quarter and did not return.

Auriemma said Ducharme hopes to play Sunday, but nothing has been determined.