Nobody could have anticipated this.
With 8:30 left in the second half, the Northwestern women’s basketball team held a 43-42 lead over No. 5 Penn State.
“We were really excited,” freshman guard Alex Mueller said. “We knew we had a chance to win this game.”
From that point on, however, the game turned sour for the Wildcats. Penn State, utilizing a three-pointer from guard Jess Strom and the inside play of center Reicina Russell, went on a 12-3 run that gave the Lady Lions a 55-45 lead with 3:49 left to play.
NU (7-13, 0-9 Big Ten) got no closer than eight the rest of the way as Penn State (17-3, 9-0) coasted to the 64-51 win in University Park, Pa.
“This loss only hurts us if we don’t learn from it and if we don’t progress from here,” NU coach June Olkowski said. “We’re not here for a moral victory. We’re still upset, but we have to build on this loss.”
Everything was set up perfectly for a Lady Lions victory. Penn State was at the top of the Big Ten standings while NU was at the bottom. Senior guard Kelly Mazzante, who on Jan. 22 broke the women’s Big Ten scoring record, was honored before the game. And Penn State had only one home loss all season. They were playing this game before a crowd of 8,854.
But the Cats had different plans for the afternoon contest. After scoring the first four points of the game, NU used a Melissa Culver three-pointer to take a 12-7 lead five minutes in.
The Lady Lions roared right back, going on an 11-0 run and holding a 33-24 advantage at the half.
NU didn’t lie down in the second half. The Cats came out after the break on a 9-2 run to tie the game at 35 with less than 13 minutes remaining.
Despite double-digit point totals from Mueller (14) and Culver (10), Penn State proved to have too many offensive weapons — the Lady Lions had four players in double figures.
While NU again fell short of its first conference win, the Cats did have a small victory on the court. Mazzante, who came into the matchup averaging 22 points per game, only managed 12 points on 3-of-18 shooting.
The Lady Lions player who gave the Cats infinite problems was Russell. The 6-foot-6 freshman scored 22 points on 9-of-9 shooting and grabbed 16 rebounds.
“She is a really good basketball player and very athletic,” said 6-4 center Sarah Kwasinski, who guarded Russell for most of the game. “Even when I was boxing her out, she could still pick the basketball over my head.”
The loss hopefully will serve as a turning point in the season, Olkowski said.
“We showed we can play with anybody now,” she said. “We can’t hide anymore. We needed to raise our level of intensity and we did it in this game.”
