By Philip Rossman-ReichThe Daily Northwestern
Sophomore forward Kristin Cartwright came off a screen and made a jumper from the free throw line as Northwestern’s 16th consecutive loss came to a close.
The final shot for the Wildcats ended an otherwise forgettable shooting night.
Against No. 5 Ohio State, NU seemed to correct or lessen some of the mistakes that haunted the team. But, poor shooting allowed the Buckeyes to walk out of Welsh-Ryan Arena with a blowout victory.
“We’re getting the shots we want,” coach Beth Combs said. “We’re not getting the ball in the hole. We’ve got to make a play. When you are given the opportunity – we shot the ball 14 more times than they did – when you get that many second chance opportunities and that much of a leeway against a good team, you’ve got to make a play.”
NU stayed close on the boards against the much bigger front line from Ohio State and scored more second chance points than the Buckeyes.
The Cats forced more turnovers and didn’t commit many of their own.
But, they shot 27.3 percent in the first half as Ohio State opened up a 21 point lead. The Cats finished the game shooting 30.2 percent.
NU held a 9-8 lead six minutes into the game. But, the Cats scored four points in the next seven minutes as the Buckeyes took a commanding lead.
It was an all too familiar scene.
“It feels like I’ve been answering this question for a long time now,” junior guard Sara Stutz said. “We’ve tried a lot of different things. It’s about getting … in the gym and getting shots up. It’s going to break one of these games.”
During the losing streak, NU has shot 38 percent from the field. Their opponents are shooting 46 percent.
The Cats aren’t faring much better from beyond the arc. They are second to last in the Big Ten in three point field goal percentage, hitting 26 percent of their three point shots.
Thursday, the Cats took 15 3’s – 12 in the first half – hitting only three.
“We needed to get shots in the paint,” Combs said. “We settled for a lot of 3-pointers. We settled for outside shots and you get long misses.
“Long misses lead to transition points for them. Once we were able to get inside their seams and make shorter passes – we talked about making that adjustment. I think we did a very good job of that.”
Ohio State used these long rebounds to score eight fast break points and begin to pull away from NU.
Stutz said the team needs to be aware of which shots they can take. When the team made the extra pass and worked the ball into the post and then back out to the three point line, they were taking good shots.
“It’s about self-awareness and knowing when your legs get a little more tired and what shots you can take then versus the beginning of the game when you have fresh legs or coming off the bench when you have fresh legs,” Stutz said. “I think it’s about taking smart shots at that point.”
Reach Philip Rossman-Reich at [email protected].
