Standing at 6-foot-5, Northwestern sophomore center Amy Jaeschke is used to being the tallest player on the court. In Thursday night’s 64-52 loss at Michigan State (10-6, 3-2 Big Ten), Jaeschke more than met her match.
Spartans 6-foot-9 center Alyssa DeHaan dominated the Wildcats in the paint, scoring 19 points and pulling down eight rebounds. Jaeschke and her cousin, senior forward Ellen Jaeschke, found little offensive success against DeHaan, scoring only seven and six points, respectively.
DeHaan, on the other hand, had a field day against NU (5-11, 1-4). Early foul trouble by both Amy and Ellen Jaeschke, the Cats’ two tallest players, landed both players on the bench for significant periods of time.
“What killed us was having our two big kids in foul trouble,” said head coach Jack McKeown. “That gave [DeHaan] a little bit of an opportunity.”
With Amy Jaeschke on the bench, DeHaan possessed as much as a seven-inch height advantage over the player guarding her. The junior center made most of the favorable circumstances.
“There’s not a whole lot we can do when you’re 6-9 and we’re 6-2,” McKeown said.
Both teams started the game slow. DeHaan provided most of the Spartans’ offensive production for the first half, and while eight Cats scored in the first period, only Ellen Jaeschke scored more than once, making two jump shots for four points.
Collectively NU made a dismal 21.7 percent of their shots in the first half, and if not for making 9-of-13 free throw attempts, would have entered the locker room trailing by much more than the 27-20 first half deficit.
The Spartans pulled away after the intermission despite the Cats making half of their second-half shots. NU often opted to take three pointers to pull Michigan State out of its zone defense, but they struggled to find rhythm, going 4-for-16 from behind the arc.
“That wasn’t part of the game plan,” said junior forward Kristin Cartwright, who led the team with nine points. “That was probably part of the problem. We were kind of settling, needed to pass more. That was another problem with us not having very good shooting percentage, because we weren’t getting it near the paint, getting closer, easier shots.”
While the loss may sting now, the Cats will get another shot at the Spartans when Michigan State visits Evanston in two weeks. By then, McKeown hopes his team’s mistakes – turning the ball over 24 times, getting out-rebounded by 10 and making only 35 percent of their shots – have been remedied.
“When they come back to play the game at Northwestern, we’ll have to do a better job,” McKeown said, “but hopefully [this game will] be a learning experience for us.”
zacharybuchanan2007
@u.northwestern.edu
