In a season saturated with blowouts, where 40-point drubbings are a semiweekly eyesore, a 15-point loss qualifies as one of the year’s best accomplishments.
“I don’t know if ‘pleased’ is quite the right word, but we took a major step forward,” Northwestern coach June Olkowski said of the Wildcats’ 74-59 loss to Michigan on Sunday in front of 2,421 fans at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich. “If you get beat by 42, you could easily go to their place and roll over. But we showed character.”
After losing 83-41 to Michigan (13-7, 6-4 Big Ten) at home only a week and a half ago, the Wildcats gave the kind of performance Sunday that could finally pitch them out of their monthlong dry spell.
Sunday’s 15-point spread is the smallest the Cats (4-15, 0-9) have seen since blowing a 66-61 home game to Ohio State on Jan. 7, the last time NU held a double-digit lead later than five minutes into a game.
Sunday’s loss was closer than the final score indicated, with NU trailing by only 50-47 with 8:43 left in the second half. The Cats kept the game within five points much of the way — a huge mental victory — until the Wolverines used a 14-6 run in the final three-and-a-half minutes to pull away.
Guard Dana Leonard and center Tami Sears, the senior tandem touted as the motivational and statistical heart of the team going into the season, both performed well for the first time this year.
“You hope your most experienced players are the ones that lead you, and you hope they can continue to do as such,” Olkowski said.
Sears left the game for about three minutes early in the first half with a knee injury, but rebounded to collect 10 points in 36 minutes of play.
Leonard, a starter last year who has played a reserve role in the past few weeks, came off the bench 10 minutes into the game and immediately scored five points. She sank a trio of shots from behind the arc in the first half, giving the Cats the perimeter attack they have been sorely lacking this season.
In Thursday’s 92-52 loss to Iowa, the Cats shot a paltry 1-for-8 from three-point land and were effectively ousted from the game by Iowa’s 82 percent three-point shooting. NU took that lesson into Sunday’s game and fired 16 shots.
Point guard Emily Butler also found her three-point touch and hit three of five trey attempts on her way to scoring 19 points.
“Dana did a nice job coming in and really helped us,” Olkowski said. “And Emily really played one of her better games. She was composed and got a lot of things done.”
Sunday’s game was only the second time this season that Sears, Butler and Leonard have all scored in double digits, a sign that a battered lineup may finally be gelling.
And for the second time in three games, the Cats outrebounded their opponent, edging the Wolverines 34-33. Billée Russell led NU with eight boards, still playing aggressively down the stretch when the Cats are normally channeling their efforts into simply staying on their feet.
However, the multiple positives — usually the Cats are strapped for even a single legitimate bright note in a game — were overshadowed by a pair of simple flaws that could have reversed the outcome of the game.
NU, a 66 percent free-throw shooting team going into the game, went into the last minute of the first half before making its first free throw. The five missed shots from the line in the first half may have had an impact on the momentum of the game — the Cats’ deficit teetered in the single digits throughout the game.
“If you hit the first couple, you think you are going to be OK,” Olkowski said. “But they outscored us at the line. And not only that, we were putting them there to score easy buckets.”
A related offense, the Cats struggled throughout the game with foul trouble. The team racked up 24 personal fouls, and by the end of the game forwards Michelle Zylstra and Leslie Dolland both had reached the limit.
Dolland, a potentially powerful clog under the net, usually fouls her way onto the bench early in games. But on Sunday she fouled out in only 14 minutes of play, leaving the Cats to battle without their 6-foot-2 starter for the final 12 minutes of the game.
Given their recent woes, the Cats can’t afford to hand out easy shots and bow out before 40 minutes are up.
“Any foul trouble concerns us,” Olkowski said. “We’re not very deep and we were in major foul trouble. But it’s not just Leslie, it’s every person.”
After losing nine straight games, NU is stressing effort over numbers, “major steps” over wins. But Sunday’s loss isn’t a defeat the Cats can swallow with satisfaction.
“I don’t know if we’re satisfied,” Olkowski said. “But this is what our appetite is right now — we’re looking to see if we can get better.”
