INDIANAPOLIS – The Northwestern women’s basketball team did something it hasn’t done all year Thursday at Conseco Fieldhouse: give itself a chance to win a Big Ten game on the final possession.
With about two seconds left and the Wildcats trailing by a pair, NU junior Natalie Will had an open 12-footer and chose to go for the tie.
“I thought it was right on,” Will said. “I thought it was going to go in.”
But the shot hit the front of the iron, and the ball ricocheted off as the final buzzer sounded before a crowd of 5,630. The last-second defeat ended the Cats’ season, while Wisconsin (18-10) advanced to today’s quarterfinal against No. 17 Minnesota.
“I wanted it to fall in that last second so we could at least go into overtime,” Will said. “I thought the momentum was going to go our way.”
NU (4-24) posted a 10-2 run in the closing two minutes. Freshman Suzanne Morrison sparked the spurt when she drove to the hoop, made a layup and drew a foul. Morrison missed the free throw, but Will stole the ball under the basket and found freshman Samantha McComb for an open three.
On the ensuing inbounds pass, Wisconsin senior Tamara Moore committed a foul, giving NU the ball right back. The Cats took advantage of the mistake, as Leslie Dolland found a cutting Will for an easy hoop.
After Moore converted two free throws on the other end, Will again delivered the ball to an open McComb in the corner for another trey.
“Natalie told me she’d penetrate and to get into her line of sight, and she’d get me the ball,” McComb said.
Wisconsin senior Jessie Stomski missed a hook shot on the other end. With 38 seconds left, the Cats had the ball, trailing by only one.
But coming out of NU’s final timeout, McComb had her pocket picked by Moore. Ten seconds ticked off the clock before Dolland fouled Kristi Seeger.
“Tamara made a good play,” McComb said. “I played with the ball in front of her, and she just took it from me.”
Although McComb lost the ball in the closing minute, she made several clutch shots down the stretch. The freshman shooting guard hit four three-pointers and tallied 14 points in the game.
Fellow freshman Suzanne Morrison provided NU’s offense down low, tallying a team-high 15 points. Her 11 first-half points off the bench helped NU capture its first halftime lead against a Big Ten opponent this season.
“They didn’t double team me on the post, and that opened the door for me,” Morrison said. “I try to be a spark off the bench. That’s been my role all year. I definitely filled that role tonight.”
Sarah Kwasinski, who was named Honorable Mention All-Big Ten on Tuesday, struggled in her first postseason game in an NU uniform. The freshman scored 10 points but was tightly guarded under the basket, settling for long jumpers most of the game. Kwasinski fouled out with 2:09 to play.
“(Wisconsin) pushed her out of the paint quite a bit,” NU coach June Olkowski said. “She’s only 150 pounds and needs to get some meat on her. She’s going to be eating peanut butter and jelly and drinking Ensure.”
While Kwasinski and the Cats start preparing for next season, Wisconsin must solve its problems before today’s contest with Minnesota. The Badgers had 24 turnovers and relied heavily on Moore to carry their offense. The senior’s quickness off the dribble posed a problem for NU, and she had a game-high 17 points and six assists.
Wisconsin’s other starting seniors – Kyla Black and Stomski – struggled early but made the shots when they mattered most. Black hit two key three-pointers near the end of the contest after starting 0-for-5 from long range. Stomski, coming off a concussion in Sunday’s loss to Ohio State, contributed only three free throws in the opening half. But she bounced back in the second to finish with 12 points.
“In the beginning of the second half, we just pounded it inside to Jessie,” Wisconsin head coach Jane Albright said. “Our rebounding was really what kept us in it.”
The Badgers outrebounded NU 45-27 to compensate for a poor shooting performance. Wisconsin shot less than 40 percent from the field and made only 2 of 9 three-pointers.
NU made 43.1 percent of its shots and knocked down seven three-pointers. It was the Cats’ shooting at the end that helped them erase a nine-point deficit in the last two minutes.
“We could have fallen down, but we fought back,” Olkowski said. “I’m very proud of our team for the effort they gave tonight.”
