The J

arly Saturday morning, at 7:30 a.m., seven hours before Marquette women’s basketball’s first game against in-state rival Wisconsin in eight years, Skylar Forbes was the first player at the Al McGuire Center, getting shots up.

Late Saturday afternoon, at 5:00 p.m., after the Golden Eagles’ 65-62 thrilling overtime comeback victory, she was sitting at a press conference table, basking in the glory of her late-game, win-sparking scoring burst to cap off a 19-point day.

Much happened to Forbes in the 9-and-a-half hours between when she conducted her morning pregame duties and when she conducted her evening postgame ones. A lot of up-and-down. A tale of two parts.

Twenty-five minutes before the end of the game, Forbes was skulking back into the locker room with only one point to her name and Marquette trailing 33-26. She had only taken two shots, both missed threes — a troublingly little amount of production for last season’s highest-scoring Golden Eagle. Her lone point came from the charity stripe.

“In the first half, we really didn’t do much of anything we wanted to do,” Marquette head coach Cara Consuegra said.

Fifteen minutes before the final buzzer was more of the same, for both Forbes and her team. The Golden Eagles finished the third quarter trailing seven points, 42-35, and Forbes finished the 10 minutes with a stat line of one rebound, 0-for-1 shooting and two turnovers, still sitting on one meager point. After 30 minutes of basketball, the person who dropped 19 points six days prior was stuck with 18 less. Uncharacteristic to say the least.

“It’s bigger than me. As a collective, we emphasize how important it is to show up for each other, regardless of if you had a bad moment, 10 minutes, 30 minutes,” she said. “It was less about me, more about showing up for my teammates.”

And show up she did, even if it took three full quarters. The Canadian native Forbes, a unanimous All Big East Preseason selection, unfazed despite the ugly start, came alive in the fourth. 

“I don’t know how much of a flip of the switch it was,” Forbes said. “Kind of reiterating Coach, just staying in the moment. Just making sure that I’m there for my teammates and knowing my teammates are there for me.

“So just being able to get the spots that I know I can get to.”

Forbes scored 12 points in the 10 minutes, shooting 4-of-5 overall, 1-of-1 from deep and 3-for-4 from the line. Most of the 12 points, eight to be exact, came from the game-turning 10-0 run with two minutes remaining in regulation that she both started with a three and capped off with a free throw.

“The way they were playing Skylar on the ball screen is they weren’t coming off of her. So we really started to use her as a decoy, and we did such a good job of that that they had to start to adjust,” Consuegra said.

“Then we were able to get her on some pops, pull them out and give her some space to operate, which got her going. And then I think our team just fed off that.”

Five minutes before the final buzzer, now in overtime, she scored all of Marquette’s six points, culminating with the game-sealing, go-ahead, frenzy-inducing 3-pointer with nine seconds remaining. The same kind of shot she practiced earlier that morning, when she was the first person in the gym.

“I rep that shot a lot in my individuals,” Forbes said. “We rep it in practice. My preparation, that was the one thing (that gave her confidence).”

And, just two possessions prior, with Wisconsin looking for a go-ahead bucket of their own, Forbes came up with a major block on Badger forward Gift Uchenna that ultimately tipped the scales in Marquette’s favor. 

When the final buzzer sounded, with the double-digit comeback complete and the Al McGuire Center lit blue & gold, Forbes and the rest of her teammates embraced, jumping and hugging and cheering. Due in no small part to her, her 18 points in the final 15 minutes and, what started it all, her morning solo shooting drills.

“Not a surprise,” Consuegra said about her Naismith watchlist honoree’s late-game heroics.