Final scores can be deceiving.
Critics might be tempted to write off Northwestern’s 72-60 loss to Iowa last night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa, as yet another evening of multiple turnovers and low shooting percentages.
But Thursday was different.
True, the Wildcats (6-10, 1-4 Big Ten) did cough up the ball 23 times and yes, they hit only 38.5 percent of their free throws. But something must have been going right for NU if it was able to come within one point of Iowa (7-5, 1-2) with only 3:14 left in the game.
So what went wrong?
“We collectively didn’t run our offense very well,” NU guard Samantha McComb said. “It wasn’t one person shutting down, it was all of us.”
In the last minutes of the game, a Sarah Kwasinski lay-up brought the Cats within one basket at 58-57. But on the next possession, with a chance to take the lead, an NU give-away gave Iowa’s Jennie Lillis an easy two points.
From then on, the Hawkeyes dominated.
“We just made some critical mistakes, mental lapses,” McComb said. “We fouled on two 3-point plays — that’s crazy.”
The Cats missed four 3-point shots and fouled six times in the last two minutes of the game, a span in which NU was outscored 9-2.
Making matters worse for the Cats, only one NU player earned double digits in points, compared to four Iowa players.
McComb led NU with 11 points, followed by Ifeoma Okonkwo, Michelle Zylstra and Natalie Will all with nine. Kwasinski, the Cats’ leading scorer, was held to only eight points for the night.
“That hurt us,” NU coach June Olkowski said. “(Kwasinski) has to be a presence every day, but they just got physical with her and denied her shots.”
But the Hawkeyes’ attention to Kwasinski opened the rest of the court. NU’s bench played particularly well, outscoring Iowa 23-10.
“Michelle (Zylstra) and Emily (Butler) hit a couple of shots, so they were pretty aggressive on offense,” McComb said.
But Zylstra and Butler couldn’t match Iowa’s Jennie Lillis on the offensive boards. The senior forward broke through the Cats’ defense to score a game-high 27 points and five offensive rebounds in her 35 minutes of playing time.
“We gave (Lillis) too many second-chance points and Iowa did a good job of finding her in the zone,” Olkowski said.
Aside from Lillis’ play, Iowa struggled from the field. The Hawkeyes hit only 36.5 percent of their field goals, compared to 43.9 percent for the Cats.
But, NU only hit five of 13 and watched Iowa sink 21 of 29.
“It was an ugly game,” Olkowski said. “But I liked our intensity, I liked how hard we played.”
NU returns home for a noon battle with Ohio State (13-3, 4-1) on Sunday. The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports Chicago — the first of two NU games to be shown on television this season.
Even though the Cats will have the home court advantage, beating the Buckeyes is a daunting task. They’ll have to keep their eyes on the Buckeyes’ Kim Wilburn, who leads the Big Ten in steals, and Courtney Coleman, who sits on top of the Big Ten offensive rebounding list.
“We need to take care of the ball more,” Olkowski said. “We have got to be a bigger presence and simply play stronger.”
NU 60
Iowa 72
