The Northwestern women’s basketball team has yet to win a Big Ten game this season. In fact, it’s been a little more than two years – and 35 regular season games – since the Wildcats last won a conference match.

This season there have been blowouts: The Cats (6-14, 0-9 Big Ten) lost to Iowa by 27 points on Dec. 22, and Penn State crushed NU by 35 on Jan. 24.

But the Cats have also come close a few times, specifically against the conference’s elite. They played No. 10 Wisconsin down to the wire in a five-point loss on Jan. 13 and gave the Hawkeyes a run for their money on Jan 10.

NU’s competitive performances in tough games show that it is capable of playing with any Big Ten team. Yet inconsistency prevents wins.

If the Cats could only put together 40 solid minutes – in one game – the streak might finally come to an end.

LACKING LEADERSHIP: On Nov. 24, in the fourth game of the year, the Cats suffered a huge blow when junior point guard Emily Butler suffered a season-ending knee injury. Since then, NU has struggled to find a floor leader to replace last season’s leading scorer, an All-Big Ten honorable mention.

Butler’s replacement at point guard has been freshman Melissa Culver, who is joined by fellow rookie Samantha McComb in the backcourt. The Cats’ inexperienced guard play has forced them to look to the frontcourt, junior forwards Leslie Dolland and Natalie Will, for leadership.

“Emily has been gone so long I don’t even remember what it’s like to play with her,” sophomore forward Michelle Zylstra said. “Leslie has been playing a lot better, and she’s been more vocal.”

Dolland, Will and sixth-man Nicole Daniels are also the only Cats who have played long enough to have won Big Ten games at NU. But Will said they don’t hold much of an advantage over their younger teammates.

“It’s not like we’ve won that many (games) anyway,” she said.

POSTING POINTS: NU’s offensive strength lies in the post with the scoring of Dolland and freshman center Sarah Kwansinski. The Cats fail to utilize their frontcourt players because of the team’s tendency to give the ball away.

After logging minutes off the bench at the beginning of the year, Dolland has emerged as a starter. She has used her size and strength to average 7.8 points per game.

Complimenting Dolland’s power, Kwasinski uses a sweet turn-around jumper to victimize opponents. The freshman has become the team’s leading scorer and is 12th in the Big Ten in scoring at 12.8 points per game.

But NU hasn’t solved its turnover problem.

“Our turnover average is discouraging,” Zylstra said. “Despite working on it all season, it seems like it’s increasing.”

NU has given the ball away more than any other team in the Big Ten and is last in the conference in assist-turnover ratio.

Culver leads the team in giveaways, but all of the Cats have struggled to hang on to the ball. NU has committed at least 20 turnovers in each conference game and against Michigan State lost the ball 18 times in the first half alone.

DEFENSIVE STRUGGLE: NU’s ‘D’ has had its shining moments, but for the most part the Cats play defense much like they play offense: without enough consistency to be effective.

The Cats’ half-court set has progressively improved with tighter man-to-man coverage, but NU continues to get burned in transition. The Cats have experienced mixed results implementing a press to slow down the transition.

NU is also weak on the defensive glass – the Cats are 10th in the Big Ten in defensive rebounds and have been outrebounded by an average of seven boards per game.

However, NU’s defensive strength is Daniels’ hustle – Olkowski calls her the team’s “defensive spark” – and Kwasinski’s shot-blocking.

Kwasinski’s 21 blocks rank third in the Big Ten. She swatted an NU record seven shots against Illinois.

LOOKING AHEAD: NU has seven games remaining before the Big Ten Tournament. The Cats’ best opportunities to break the streak are the last three games of the season when they face three squads in the bottom half of the Big Ten.

They have a two-game homestand against Ohio State and Michigan, and close out the season on the road against Indiana. All three are games the Cats are capable of winning if they can pull all the pieces together.