It was the same old story for the Northwestern women’s basketball team Sunday at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
The Wildcats lost their 40th consecutive regular-season Big Ten game, as a slow start and turnovers led to an 87-69 loss against Ohio State.
“They put a lot of pressure on us early and they intimidated us right from the start,” freshman Suzanne Morrison said. “When they put pressure on us early, we stepped back.”
With 11 minutes remaining in the first half, NU had more turnovers (nine) than points (eight). The giveaways put the Cats in a 19-8 hole, but not all the turnovers were the result of NU mistakes – some were Buckeyes’ takeaways.
In a 10-second span, Ohio State guard Tomeka Brown picked NU point guard Melissa Culver’s pocket twice in a row. Brown ended the contest with a career-high 10 steals, accounting for half of the Buckeyes’ 20 as a team.
“I just came out hard and tried to play tough defense because good defense is contagious,” Brown said. “Defense and rebounding were the keys to our game and that’s how we got the (win).”
The Buckeyes used their defense and rebounding to spark their offense at the other end of the court, scoring 27 second-chance points on 18 offensive rebounds.
The Cats’ careless passes and 35 percent shooting in the first half led to easy transition buckets for Ohio State, which scored 42 points off turnovers. NU also gave up 14 fast-break points.
“In the first half we handled their half-court offense pretty well, but they killed us in transition,” NU coach June Olkowski said. “Whether it was off a turnover or a miss, they pushed it down the court.”
Despite the early struggles, NU went on a 6-0 run right before the break to cut the lead to 36-28. With a minute left, Samantha McComb stole the ball near the Cats’ basket and found center Sarah Kwasinski for an easy deuce. Kwasinski made the layup, was fouled and converted the free throw.
Then with 3.6 seconds left, McComb pushed the ball upcourt and sank a half-court shot with time expiring. The three brought the fans to their feet and gave NU some hope heading into halftime.
“Sam hitting that three at halftime really did a lot for us,” Morrison said. “It was huge. It kept our heads up in the locker room, and we were excited about the second half.”
After the break, Morrison used dribble penetration to establish an offensive rhythm. The freshman forward scored all nine of her points in the second period and added five rebounds.
Like Morrison, all of the Cats shot better after the intermission. NU went 13 for 24 and scored 41 points in the second half.
“I felt Suzanne did a good job coming off the bench,” Olkowski said. “In the second half we played even with them. It was the usual scenario – they crushed us on the board and got to the foul line.”
NU committed 24 fouls and put the Buckeyes on the free-throw line 34 times. Junior Natalie Will was called for her fourth foul with 14 minutes remaining and saw little action the rest of the game.
Junior Anya Walker fouled out in the final minutes after scoring a season-high 11 points. While she was in the game, she provided the Cats with stability at the point-guard position.
“I thought Anya played really well,” Olkowski said. “The point is not her position, she is really a two-guard. She is really happy when she gives the ball up and they give it back to her and she can shoot it.”
Walker was a surprising source of offense, but Kwasinski has been a consistent scorer all season for NU. The freshman accounted for 25 points on 11-of-16 shooting.
On defense, Kwasinski swatted four shots to move up to third all-time in the Cats’ record book for single-season blocks.
Again, the freshman was a bright spot in what has been a tough season for NU.
“We knew (Kwasinski) was good, and we were trying to decide our All-Freshman team while sitting on the bench,” Ohio State coach Beth Burns said.
“She definitely got the votes of the Buckeyes. She was terrific.”
