The defeat, NU’s 15th in a row, mercifully brings the Wildcats (4-21, 0-15 Big Ten) to within one game of ending what will go down in the record books as the worst season in NU women’s basketball history.
The Cats reserved themselves a spot in the books two weeks ago when they first set the mark for longest losing skid. But Wednesday’s loss to the Buckeyes (16-9, 6-9) sets up NU to become the first women’s team in school history to go winless in the Big Ten.
The latest loss – in front of 6,724 fans at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio – came in familiar fashion, with the Cats committing the same mistakes they’ve made all season.
“We turned the ball over, they pounded the ball inside, went to the line and finished, and we couldn’t score,” NU coach June Olkowski said. “We couldn’t get into any type of flow.”
Continuing their seasonlong shooting woes, the Cats went more than seven-and-a-half minutes in the second half without scoring, before a Dana Leonard trey finally put an end to the 16-0 Ohio State run. That stretch turned what was a close game at the break into a cinch for the Buckeyes.
The Cats played a strong first half, shooting 57 percent from the field to tie the game at 27 two minutes before the break. NU then went into the intermission trailing by only three.
That feat would have been remarkable only a month ago, but the tight halftime scores have become a regular phenomenon in the final third of the conference season. Unfortunately for the Cats, the upbeat first halves just as regularly have been followed up by flat second stanzas.
Exactly what happens between halves to cause the drastic shift in momentum remains a mystery.
“We felt comfortable (at the half),” Olkowski said. “We made good adjustments offensively and defensively. But they were playing on Senior Day full of emotion.”
That explanation hardly accounts for one of the season’s recurring themes. But it may help explain Buckeyes guard Jamie Lewis’ defensive domination. Lewis recorded five steals Wednesday.
Ohio State’s lone senior starter was supported at the other end of the court by guard Lauren Shenk, who led the scoring with 15 points, and by forward D’wan Shackleford, who added 12.
By contrast, Cats point guard Emily Butler followed up a career-high 26-point performance last week against Michigan State by scoring only six points against the Buckeyes. She also surrendered nine turnovers.
Butler sweated through double-team pressure all game long, and her teammates couldn’t pick up the slack on offense. Forward Tami Sears scored 12 points for NU, but only one other starter managed more than six.
“We don’t have a lot of firepower, so we’ve got to keep the game as close as we can,” Olkowski said. “Tami did a great job, but it was a tough assignment for all of our post players.”
In the backcourt, Cats guard Dana Leonard cracked the starting lineup for the fourth game in a row. But the move was as much Olkowski shaking things up as it was giving one of her seniors a chance to salvage the end of a miserable season.
“For as many as years as I’ve been coaching,” Olkowski said, “I was just going with a feel.”
