In coach Beth Combs’ debut, the Northwestern women’s basketball team defeated Slovakia’s B.K. Poprad in an exhibition game Friday night 102-80. The Wildcats last scored 100 points seven years ago when they beat Michigan 104-65 en route to their last NCAA Tournament birth.
“I’m really pleased with what we did tonight,” Combs said. “We’ve got a long way to go, but I’m pleased with our start.
“But I do think we had some nerves early on and our lineup is not quite in-sync yet.”
After sitting out last season recovering from ankle surgery, senior Suzanne Morrison began the game 8-for-8 from the field, scoring the first seven points for the Cats. She finished with a career-high 31 points and 11 rebounds.
“I just kept moving around out there,” Morrison said. “A year was a long time to wait to touch the ball again so that was definitely a motivating factor for me.”
B.K. Poprad played the Cats close at the start, but NU took the lead for good with 9:37 left in the first half on a 3-pointer from sophomore A.J. Glasauer, making the score 26-24.
After facing its largest deficit, 14-10, the Cats went on a 42-23 run to end the half.
“We’re going to push the ball up the floor,” Combs said. “We really want to look to be aggressive offensively and use the strengths of our players.”
The Cats put the game out of reach midway through the second half in a four minute stretch in which they outscored B.K. Poprad 17-4.
“On the offensive end, obviously we did well,” freshman forward Sara Stutz said. “Any time you score 100 points it’s amazing.”
Senior Melissa Culver, the Cats’ fifth leading scorer last year, was the only player not to play in the game as she sat out with a foot injury.
“We’re hopefully going to get (Culver) back as quickly as possible,” Combs said. “She sprained her ankle fairly severely in practice (two weeks ago).
“We’re rehabbing here twice and day and hope to get her back on the floor for Friday’s opener.”
The Cats offensive strategy changed dramatically from last year as NU pushed the ball up the floor in a fast-paced full court offense. Last season NU averaged 52 points a game and had a three game stretch when it only scored 106 points total, just four more than Friday’s total.
“We’ve really taken the new system that coach Combs has brought,” Morrison said. “We kissed that Princeton offense goodbye, and I think we can do a lot more with our talent now.”
Four players reached double figures: Morrison 31 points, Stutz 20 points, junior Ifeoma Okonkwo 18 points and freshman Melissa Miller 10 points. Okonkwo also recorded six assists and six rebounds.
Miller had seven rebounds, including four offensive boards.
Although the offense was clicking on all cylinders — NU shot almost 54 percent from the floor — the Cats’ defense struggled, giving up more points to B.K. Poprad, which already lost to Marquette 62-41, Illinois 114-74, Western Michigan 87-78 and Purdue 60-39.
“I’m not real pleased with our defensive effort,” Combs said. “We were not as intense as we needed to be at times, and we didn’t pressure the ball the way we really wanted to.”
While this was just an exhibition game, Morrsion said she believes it is a sign for things to come this season.
“I really think we are going to be major contenders,” Morrsion said.
Reach Abraham Rakov at [email protected].
Friday
BKP 80
NU 102
