By Jake SimpsonThe Daily Northwestern
After 12 straight losses, the last two by 28 and 32 points, coach Beth Combs decided to shake things up before yesterday’s clash with Wisconsin. She benched the entire starting lineup, giving the Wildcats’ second team a chance to make a statement and end the losing streak.
And for five minutes, it looked like they would do just that.
Hustling on both sides of the ball and frustrating the Badgers with their inspired play, the reserves-turned-starters led Northwestern to an early lead. But the Cats’ second squad could not repeat its play in the second half, as the first five minutes of the second stanza saw Wisconsin put the game away.
“We had an intensity out there that we didn’t have before,” Combs said. “But we lost it in the second half when they went up by 30.”
Walking onto the court for the tip, the Cats’ lineup was almost unrecognizable to the casual fan. Gone was leading scorer A.J. Glasauer and her 12.7 points per game. Gone was junior Sara Stutz, who had started every game in her three years at Northwestern. Instead, the starting five was a group of bench players who averaged 16.2 points per game combined. Senior Holly Palin, who before Sunday played an average of two minutes a game, was a starter, as was sophomore Erin Dickerson (1.3 ppg).
The Wisconsin starting five must have been salivating when they saw this second squad take the court. But what the Cats’ quintet of Palin, Dickerson, Kristin Cartwright, Julie Bielawski, and Beth Marshall lacked in statistics, they more than made up for in hustle.
“We knew we needed to come out there and have that spark and start the game off right,” Bielawski said.
The second squad brought that intensity right from the start. The Cats forced two quick turnovers and took a 3-0 lead on a Marshall trey. Then Cartwright took over, dominating on both sides of the ball on her way to seven consecutive points. She hit two free throws for a 5-0 lead, then stole the ball from Badgers’ guard Caitlin Gibson and drained a three for an 8-2 lead. She ended her run with a short jumper for a 10-4 Northwestern lead.
Despite their success, the Cats were unable to hold off Wisconsin, which took a 38-28 lead into halftime. In the second half, Combs once again turned to her reserves. This time, however, the quintet played sloppy, and the Badgers took advantage – starting the half with a 21-4 run that put the game away.
“We just lost the spark we had in the first half,” Cartwright said.
Going forward, the Cats’ top players will try to bring the same intensity with which their backups played. With their losing streak at 13, however, the team’s frustration is mounting. When asked what it would take for her squad to bring the intensity for the entire game, Combs replied simply, “I don’t know.”
Reach Jake Simpson at [email protected].
