By Philip Rossman-ReichThe Daily Northwestern
For three quarters of a game, the Wildcats had no response to anything the Buckeyes threw at them.
After holding a lead in the opening minutes and competing with No. 6 Ohio State, Northwestern saw a slightly manageable deficit grow into a blowout.
However, the Cats (6-12, 0-5 Big Ten) had little fight in them as Ohio State (15-1, 4-0) cruised to a 70-42 victory at ValueCenter Arena on Sunday.
“It’s not that Ohio State picked up their intensity or picked up their pressure,” coach Beth Combs said. “We just got back on our heels and settled. We did some good things and we were in a game for 12 minutes. I realize we got beat by 30, but we really didn’t play a bad basketball game. We just didn’t have that energy and just didn’t pick it up a notch.”
NU competed for much of the first half, holding an 11-6 lead four minutes into the game. But the Buckeyes used a 23-8 run to take a 39-23 lead into the half.
The Cats would get no closer than 14 points in the second half as the Buckeyes sent them to their 11th straight loss.
“I think we were shooting it well with confidence,” junior center Melissa Miller said. “We weren’t back on our heels. We were driving at them hard. We weren’t scared of their top-10 ranking. I think it was just a matter of confidence that we were able to come out strong against them.”
Two-time Big Ten Player of the Year Jessica Davenport dominated NU with 22 points, 12 in the second half, and 12 rebounds.
The 6-foot-5 senior kept NU from coming close. Davenport forced sophomore Julie Bielawski and freshman Kaitlin McInerney into foul trouble and controlled the boards, giving herself easy put backs and attracting much of NU’s defensive attention.
By the end of the game, the two post players guarding her could do nothing but stand back and watch, trying to avoid even more fouls.
“When you play a team like Ohio State who has a great player down low their offense is really based on there,” Bielawski said. “That’s where we as a team need to play as a team. I feel like we weren’t there for each other. (Davenport) is an All-American and she is going to get her points every game, but we didn’t play well against her as a team.”
Things went well for the Cats early in the game. They took a 13-12 lead over the Buckeyes and trailed 16-15 with just more than 10 minutes left in the first half.
But eventually the Buckeyes overcame NU’s early effort. Ohio State ended the half on a 23-8 run, building a lead the Cats couldn’t overcome.
Bielawski led the Cats with 11 points even though she played much of the game in foul trouble. Junior guard Sara Stutz added 10 points.
NU shot 33.3 percent from the field and took 15 three point shots, making only three. The Buckeyes shot 50 percent, 61 percent in the first half, to build their lead.
“The whole Minnesota game, the first half of this game and the Iowa game showed us that we can play with those teams,” senior forward A.J. Glasauer said. “This is all we’re going to take now into the next practice week and then show it on the court with (No. 13) Purdue. We can play with them. We’ve just got to make it for 40 minutes now.”
Reach Philip Rossman-Reich at [email protected].
