When the final buzzer sounded in Northwestern’s game against No. 17 Minnesota, NU guard Samantha McComb put her hands on her knees and angled her head up towards the scoreboard.
Then her head sank back down in disbelief.
For McComb and the rest of the Wildcats, it wasn’t supposed to end this way.
NU (7-17, 2-11 Big Ten) staked itself to an 18-point lead over the highest-scoring offense in the nation with 15:30 remaining in the game.
But the Cats were unable to hold Minnesota stars Corrin Von Wald and Lindsay Whalen at bay as the Golden Gophers (18-4, 7-4) escaped Welsh-Ryan Arena with a 64-61 victory.
“We let the lead slip away, and then they made the big plays at the end,” NU coach June Olkowski said. “They kicked it up a notch, made an 18-0 run at the end of the game, and we just didn’t react well — that’s the story of the game.”
For the first 25 minutes of the game, NU could do no wrong.
It was a start that was reminiscent of the 29-point win over Michigan on Sunday, as the Cats shot 54 percent from the field in the first half — 60 percent from beyond the arc — and held the high-octane Minnesota offense to 24 points.
“We’ve always been getting open shots all year,” NU guard Melissa Culver said. “We’re just making them now.”
The Cats mixed a consistent post game led by sophomore Suzanne Morrison with deadly 3-point shooting in the first half.
The Cats fortunes could be summed up in one play. Standing near the baseline, NU forward Ifeoma Okonkwo banked in an off-balanced shot from an impossible angle as an embarrassed smile flashed across her face.
Senior guard Emily Butler didn’t play a minute, but her emphatic high-fiving along the sidelines said it all — this was NU’s game to win.
But with 15 minutes to play and the Cats up 50-32, the magic ended.
The Gophers decided it was time to start acting like a top-20 team.
Von Wald ended with a career-high 27 points, and Whalen added 18 as the duo led the Gophers to a dramatic and emotional comeback.
“Five or six games ago, this team would have just fallen apart and given up,” Minnesota coach Pam Borton said. “They kept their heads in the game and acted like a true team.”
Minnesota started to trap the Cats, forcing turnovers in three consecutive possessions. At one point, the Gophers’ defense prevented NU from taking a shot for more than two minutes.
It wasn’t until NU started to set halfcourt screens that it finally got the ball up court.
“It took us about eight possessions to figure out (the trap), and by that time the damage was done,” Olkowski said. “They did a good job with their defense in the second half.”
Even after the 18-0 Gopher run tied the game with 9:10 remaining, NU refused to quit.
NU was able to rebuild lead to four behind a McComb 3-pointer, as NU continued to spread the wealth. The Cats had four players in double-digits, led by Morrison’s 17.
But Minnesota eventually overpowered the Cats, who had zero points from the usually productive bench.
Von Wald sank two critical free throws with 13 seconds left to push the Gopher lead to three, but the Cats could not correctly execute their set play on the ensuing possession.
NU center Sarah Kwasinski ended up with the ball in her hands as the final seconds ticked off the clock, and she threw up an airball to end the game.
As Minnesota ambled into the locker room breathing a huge sigh of relief, the Cats limped back to their locker room heartbroken.
“This is as frustrating as it gets — we can only say we stayed with them so many times,” Kwasinski said. “I hope we can take this frustration and anger out on Indiana next week.”
