EAST LANSING, Mich. — This time it wasn’t even close.
After the Northwestern women’s basketball team nearly upset Michigan State on Jan. 22 at Welsh-Ryan Arena, the Spartans proved they were not going to take the Wildcats lightly the second time around.
Although NU (7-15, 0-11 Big Ten) opened the game on a 9-4 run, No. 20 Michigan State (18-4, 8-3) rolled to an easy 70-46 victory Sunday in front of 5,543 fans at the Breslin Center.
“We want to win a basketball game,” junior center Sarah Kwasinski said. “We’re trying to stick together and be positive right now.”
Until the 12:42 mark in the first half, the Cats seemed like they would stay in the game until the final buzzer. As it turned out, the game was out of reach before the final buzzer in the first half.
Holding a 17-11 lead, NU looked like a high-powered offensive machine. Kwasinski poured in nine points in the game’s first seven minutes, and the entire offense was centered around her. While the Cats’ defense wasn’t exactly shutting down the Spartans, their offense was matching Michigan State bucket-for-bucket.
Then everything fell apart. Michigan State used a 14-0 run to take the lead for good with 7:43 left in the first half. After trading baskets for the next four minutes, the Spartans solidified their lead with a 10-0 run and took a 37-21 advantage into the locker room.
“They were playing their matchup zone,” Kwasinski said. “We worked on it all week and we were able to pick it apart. But then they went to more of a man defense, and we didn’t adjust.”
Junior point guard Samantha McComb, in her second game back from injury, again showed signs of rust.
McComb did not start, and in her first few minutes coming off the bench, she twice missed dishing the ball to a wide-open Alex Mueller in the corner.
McComb scored only two points and had three turnovers.
“I need to get into the flow of the game,” McComb said. “Right now I’m playing like crap.”
Led by double-digit scoring from Kristin Haynie (10), Lindsey Bowen (14) and Victoria Lucas-Perry (12), Michigan State continued to extend its lead in the second half.
The Spartans used a 9-0 run with 8:56 left in the game to outscore NU 33-25 after the break.
“In the second half we got them to turn the ball over more, and then we would go and turn the ball over on the next possession,” NU coach June Olkowski said.
Only two Cats scored in double-figures: Kwasinski with 17 and senior forward Michelle Zylstra with 18. The next highest-scoring player was junior guard Melissa Culver, who had four points.
Even after enduring her 11th loss of the season and her 103rd at NU, Olkowski said she is trying to keep her team positive.
“You can imagine how frustrated we are,” she said. “But the way we continue to compete shows the character of this team. We are going to get more than one win. We just have to get them one at a time.”
