The Wildcats’ 20th loss of the season seemed all too familiar.
With two seconds left in the game and Northwestern trailing by one, freshman Sara Stutz threw an inbound pass through senior Samantha McComb’s arms and out of bounds, giving Indiana the ball.
Indiana’s Cyndi Valentin then missed two free throw attempts, but senior Melissa Culver was not able to get a shot off before time expired in a 54-53 loss to the Hoosiers (10-13, 3-10 Big Ten).
This is the first time since 2000 that NU (5-20, 2-10) fell to Indiana twice in a season.
“I think both (Sarah Kwasinski) and Suzanne (Morrison) were open on their screen and rolls,” coach Beth Combs said. “Stutz just concentrated on Sam (McComb) and threw an errant pass.
“But I’m a little bit to blame on that. We had not really practiced that play very much.”
The Cats led for almost 30 minutes before Valentin hit a layup and a free throw to give the Hoosiers a 45-44 lead. NU took the lead back with five minutes remaining, but lost it for good on a layup by Indiana’s Sarah McKay with 1:26 left.
Neither team scored for the rest of the game.
“We played with a lot more emotion,” Culver said. “We just couldn’t get it done.”
Like in the game in Bloomington, Ind., the Cats built a first half lead by shooting more than 50 percent in the half. While NU shot a little more than 20 percent from the field in the second half of the first game against Indiana, the Cats shot almost 37 percent in the second half Sunday.
This time around, NU managed to get the lead up to eight with more than 13 minutes left. But the Hoosiers went on a 14-5 run to take their first lead of the game with 10:11 left.
“We have to understand that we are going to have ups and downs,” Combs said. “It’s part of the ebb and flow of the game. You make a run, they make a run and what we have to do is continue to answer runs.”
For the first time in three games, the Cats scored more than 40 points in the contest. NU and Indiana are 10th and 11th in the Big Ten in scoring offense, with Indiana averaging almost 47 points a game and NU 56 points.
“We didn’t play well on Thursday, we didn’t play well today and part of that is feeding off of each other,” Combs said. “You can’t come in some days ready to play and some days not ready to play.”
The Hoosiers proved why they’re last in the conference in rebounding margin, as the Cats outrebounded them by 14.
“We just concentrated on boxing out,” senior Suzanne Morrison said. “They pride themselves on their defense and we just tried to counteract that and block out.”
NU led 32-28 at halftime after shooting 52 percent from the field, including making 2-of-3 3-pointers. It took the Cats the majority of the second half to pass the 30-point barrier the past two games.
The Cats scored the first six points of the contest and never trailed in the first half. After Indiana tied the game at 19-19 with a little more than six minutes left in the half, the Cats went on an 11-4 run to get a seven-point lead.
“I think we just played with more confidence,” Culver said. “It all started with our defense. We played good defense today.”
Morrison led the team with 12 points and seven rebounds. Junior Ifeoma Okonkwo was the only other NU player to score in double figures, with 10 points to go with seven rebounds.
Culver tied her season high with eight points and grabbed four rebounds in 19 minutes. She averages 15 minutes per game, but her time was increased due to the absence of sophomore guard A.J. Glasauer, who is taking a personal leave of absence from the team.
Glasauer averaged 5.6 points a game and had two starts this season. A timetable has not been set for her return.
Reach Abe Rakov at [email protected].
