Almost halfway through the second half of Northwestern’s contest at Iowa, the Wildcats were close to the Hawkeyes.
But suddenly the mistakes started to mount up. And so did the deficit.
“We just lost our heads out there,” junior A.J. Glasauer said. “I don’t know why. We’re all pretty disappointed with ourselves right now.”
Iowa led by as many as 12 points in the first half, but NU closed it to four in the second stanza before letting the Hawkeyes run wild. Over a nine minute period, Iowa broke the game open with a 23-6 run, en route to a 76-61 victory.
The Cats committed eight turnovers and eight fouls during the stretch as the Hawkeyes quickly pulled the game away.
“We were in the ballgame,” coach Beth Combs said. “We weren’t playing great but we were doing what we needed to do. We were playing decent defense and we were making plays and then all of the sudden we just kind of got on different pages.”
For much of the game NU kept the No. 1 offense in the Big Ten in check, and the final statistics tell a story of a game much closer than the score.
The Cats had fewer turnovers than the Hawkeyes, more steals, more blocks and only two fewer rebounds. But NU was undone by its 36 percent shooting percentage – the Cats missed their first nine shots.
“We don’t need everything to go perfectly, but we need everything to be at a consistent level,” Glasauer said. “When one category drops – and it drops – to 20 percent shooting percentage or 40 turnovers – we can’t have that.”
NU also found itself unable to contain Iowa’s Megan Skouby or Krista VandeVenter. VandeVenter carried the Hawkeyes for much of the second half, finishing with 13 points, 13 rebounds and four assists.
Combs started Ifeoma Okonkwo for the first time since mid-December, hoping the senior’s athleticism could hold down Skouby. While Okonkwo performed well defensively, registering two blocks and three steals, Skouby eventually proved too much.
“She’s 6-6 and I’m 5-10 so it was quite a challenge,” Okonkwo said of the Big Ten’s freshman scoring leader. “I just tried to use my athleticism to try and make some blocks and depend on my teammates to help me out on the help side.”
Combs had unexpected difficulty juggling her lineup from the start. Point guard Sara Stutz, who leads the team in minutes per game, was in foul trouble early.
Stutz was forced to sit the last 12:27 of the first half after getting her third foul, and fouled out with 5:07 left in the game. She finished with three points in a mere 17 minutes.
“Stutz really does a good job for us,” Combs said. “Not being able to have her in the ballgame and limiting her to under 20 minutes, that really hurts our ball club.”
The loss overshadowed solid performances from a number of contributors. Okonkwo and freshman Kristin Cartwright both turned in double-doubles, while Glasauer finished with 14 points.
Still, after winning two of their last four going into Thursday – the two losses coming to nationally ranked opponents – the Cats left Iowa unsatisfied.
“It was a step back,” Okonkwo said. “But hopefully it can also be a step forward so that we can focus on the mistakes that we made in this game so we won’t have to make those mistakes again.”
Reach David Kalan at [email protected].
