After the end of 2008 was plagued with frustratingly close losses and uneven play, Northwestern started off the new year on a high note Sunday night by notching a 49-46 victory over Wisconsin. It was the Wildcats’ first Big Ten win of the season, matching their conference win total from last winter.
Despite ranking at or near the bottom of the conference in most defensive categories, NU was able to create problems for Wisconsin’s offense by varying its defensive sets.
“I felt like each time down the court we were seeing a different look,” said Wisconsin guard Alyssa Karel, who topped all scorers with 19 points.
The game was tight from start to finish, featuring nine lead changes and six ties. The Cats (5-10, 1-3 Big Ten) led 26-20 with five minutes left in the first half, but proceeded to turn the ball over on their next four possessions against the conference’s stingiest defense. The Badgers (12-3, 2-2 Big Ten) ran off nine straight points to enter the locker room with a 29-26 advantage.
A 13-2 run propelled NU to a six-point lead with 4:02 to play – an almost identical situation to the one the team faced in a game against Kansas State at the start of the season. That game ended in a loss.
Then Wisconsin cut the margin in half, and when the Badgers came up with an offensive rebound off of a missed 3-pointer with 6.4 seconds left, it gave them one more chance to send the game into overtime and add to the Cats’ list of heartbreaking defeats. But a shot just before the buzzer from the left corner was too long, and NU survived with a hard-earned win.
For a team that has been close as often as NU has, a 5-10 record is not much to show for it. The Cats have led 10 games at the half this season and trailed by five points or fewer in four others.
“We could easily be sitting here .500,” NU coach Joe McKeown said.
A major reason why the Cats have had trouble closing out contests is their inability to take control of the ball, turning it over 35 more times than their opponents have. In games over winter break against DePaul and Michigan, NU held halftime leads but finished with at least 20 miscues.
The Cats nearly squandered a 14-point advantage before intermission to North Dakota due in large part to 23 turnovers, but they also forced 27 such mistakes and escaped with a two-point victory.
Despite usually having the tallest player on the court in 6-foot-5 sophomore center Amy Jaeschke, NU has tallied nearly 60 fewer offensive rebounds than it has allowed. That difference, as well as the turnovers, is why the Cats have been outshot by more than six attempts per game, and thus why they have lost games despite shooting a better percentage than they have permitted their opponents.
For instance, NU held DePaul to just 36.5 percent from the floor in a 60-51 loss. But the Cats also shot 12 fewer times, negating their sizeable edge in shooting percentage. Not coincidentally, the Blue Demons had nine fewer turnovers and twice as many offensive boards.
Conference play also got underway over the holidays, and NU’s Big Ten opener resulted in the season’s low point, an 81-57 blowout loss at Indiana. But the Cats held their own against No. 17 Ohio State the following week, falling by nine points. They also denied a double-double to Buckeyes’ sophomore center and defending co-Big Ten Player of the Year Jantel Lavender, just the second time this season she did not reach that threshold.
Recently named co-Big Ten Player of the Week for her performances against Ohio State and Wisconsin, Jaeschke has continued to be NU’s most productive offensive weapon. She is averaging slightly fewer than 17 points and 10 rebounds per game even though she gets most of the attention from opposing defenses.
“Before I even caught (the ball) there were two or three people on me,” Jaeschke said after the Wisconsin game, in which she led the Cats with 12 points despite the double- and triple-teams.
Other players have stepped up for NU as well to keep defenses honest. Guard Meshia Reed and forwards Brittany Orban and Kristin Cartwright are all averaging at least 7.5 points per game. Senior sharpshooter Erin Dickerson ranks second in the Big Ten in 3-point percentage.
Now that the Cats finally have closed out a quality opponent, they can put the disappointments from earlier in the season behind them. Cartwright believes the confidence that NU gained from Sunday’s victory will carry over into the rest of the season.
“This is definitely a momentum-builder,” she said. “It’s going to keep building hopefully from game to game.”
