Ending a game with a 15-5 run in basketball often foreshadows a favorable final score.
But this wasn’t the case for Northwestern women’s basketball team.
A disappointing first half enabled Michigan (11-6, 2-3 Big Ten) to sink the Wildcats 65-50 Thursday night in front of 1,004 at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich.
“It would have been great to get this win on the road,” senior guard Natalie Will said. “We didn’t play well — we just panicked a lot and missed open shots.”
The two teams started the contest by trading baskets until the 8:00 mark of the first half, at which point NU (6-12, 1-6) trailed 13-10.
And then the Wolverines went wild.
Michigan forced turnovers and converted its scoring chances during an 18-1 run that led to a 33-17 halftime lead.
The Wolverines alternated between a 1-3-1 and 3-2 zone defense to force give-aways and hold the Cats to 30 percent first-half shooting.
“(The zone defense) took us out of our comfort level,” NU coach June Olkowski said. “We didn’t take care of the ball as well as we should have, and it just took us out of our rhythm.”
For the third straight game, the Cats turned over the ball at least 20 times. The mishaps have allowed opponents to score easy transition buckets and put games out of reach.
“Michigan played well,” senior guard Nicole Daniels said. “But we’re usually a lot calmer. It was us beating ourselves out there.”
But the turnovers wouldn’t be so big a problem if the Cats could put some points on the board.
Besides scoring only 17 points in the first half, NU’s long-range game was nonexistent Thursday night.
NU shot 3-for-16 from downtown with nine different players taking at least one 3-pointer.
“We are much better shooters than we’re showing right now,” Olkowski said. “But if we’re not going to be able to score, we have to at least defend well and limit them from scoring.”
To its credit, NU’s offense woke up in the second half. The Cats nearly doubled their first- half total with 33 second-half points.
Will had a strong second half to finish the game with 10 points on 5 of 9 shooting, while sophomore center Sarah Kwasinski narrowly missed her second consecutive double-double, scoring 10 points and leading the team with nine rebounds.
But the NU center was upstaged by her Michigan counterpart, Jennifer Smith. The junior scored 17 points on 8 of 12 shooting in 24 minutes.
NU’s Daniels made the best of her short time in the game by scoring five points and collecting four rebounds and three steals in only eight minutes. The three swipes tied for the game high.
“(Daniels) came in and did a nice job for us defensively,” Olkowski said. “She got her hands on some passes, and we were able to score some easy baskets.”
But it was too little, too late, as Smith’s low-post game helped the Wolverines put the contest away.
Smith was aided by a strong performance from guard Stephanie Gandy, who put up 15 points and pulled down eight rebounds.
Michigan beat NU in every major statistical category — rebounds, assists, steals and shooting percentage .
But the Cats know the time for brooding over Thursday’s loss has ended.
No. 12 Purdue (15-3, 5-2) visits Welsh-Ryan Arena at 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
“We’re disappointed with what happened here,” Will said. “But we need to suck it up, learn from our mistakes and get ready for Purdue.”
