A month ago, the Northwestern women’s basketball team came the closest it has to victory all year, falling to then-No. 5 Wisconsin in a heartbreaking five-point loss.
Still looking for that elusive first Big Ten victory, the Cats (4-20, 0-13 Big Ten) headed to Madison on Thursday for a rematch with the No. 25 Badgers (17-7, 8-6), losers of six straight.
In Thursday’s Senior Night contest, Wisconsin tainted the memory of NU’s moral victory back in January, crushing the Cats 80-47 at the Kohl Center in front of a crowd of 6,492.
Wisconsin’s seniors proved themselves worthy of the pregame ceremonies – the four combined for 54 of the Badgers’ 80 points, led by forward Jessie Stomski, who scored 24.
“(Stomski) had her way with us,” NU head coach June Olkowski said. “It was a very emotional performance, and their seniors stepped up and played.”
The Badgers’ coaching was almost as impressive as their playing – Wisconsin came into the game well-prepared for NU’s offense and held the Cats to 18-for-60 shooting from the field.
“They knew what to take away,” freshman center Sarah Kwasinski said. “They stopped our reversals on the perimeter and took away our high post entries.”
The Badgers also put a stop to Kwasinski’s high-low post play, which was highly successful against Minnesota on Sunday.
The Cats looked good coming out of the gates, with Kwasinski scoring off an assist from Leslie Dolland on the first possession of the game. NU followed that up with a defensive stop and another bucket. The Cats did not turn the ball over until the seventh minute, when they led 10-9.
But the Cats shot 1-for-6 from the field over the next seven minutes, allowing Wisconsin to pull away for good around the 10-minute mark.
“We missed a couple of layups and a couple easy jumpers,” Kwasinski said. “We should have been able to recover, but we didn’t.”
And while the Cats couldn’t make a shot, the Badgers – particularly Stomski, who had 18 before the break – couldn’t miss.
“They capitalized on the buckets we missed,” Olkowski said. “We played a good 10 minutes, and we were even with them, but we faltered again at the end.”
NU was down by 18 heading into the locker room, and despite a rally early in the second half, the Cats could never trim the deficit to fewer than 13 points.
“We lost our confidence,” Kwasinski said. “That’s half the game right there.”
Struggling to find a player who could make a shot, Olkowski went deep into her bench in the second half.
Junior guard Anya Walker, a seldom-used reserve, stepped on the court with about 11:20 left in the game and promptly drained a three-pointer to cut the Wisconsin lead to 20. But Walker couldn’t keep the hot hand and finished the night with only four points.
Dolland, normally a frontcourt scoring threat for the Cats, had an off-night offensively. She contributed to the Cats’ poor shooting percentage, going 1 of 10 from the field.
NU couldn’t compensate from beyond the arc. Besides Walker, only freshman guard Samantha McComb scored from three-point range, where the Cats were 2 of 12 as a team. McComb, who had a career-high 18 points against Minnesota on Sunday, finished with eight Thursday.
“We did not respond,” Olkowski said. “We feel badly about this performance. In this game we didn’t give ourselves an opportunity.”
The Badgers had both the home-court and the Senior Night advantage, which Kwasinski called “a huge mental edge.”
The Cats, however, have two contests left to enjoy their own home-court advantage at Welsh-Ryan Arena, the next coming Sunday at 2 p.m. against Ohio State (11-14, 6-8).
