For weeks, Northwestern has come up empty-handed in its attempts to generate outside scoring punch to spread opposing defenses. The Wildcats failed to score 60 points or shoot 40 percent from the field in each game of their seven-game losing streak entering Thursday night, with no indication that things were going to get better in the near future.
Michigan decided not to let NU sophomore center Amy Jaeschke take over the game and collapsed on her every time she touched the ball, a similar strategy to that which most teams have employed against the Cats’ leading scorer. With Jaeschke held to fewer than 10 points for the fourth straight game, two players finally stepped up for NU and injected much-needed firepower into the offensive attack.
“Meshia Reed and Kristin Cartwright picked up the slack and just gave us points,” coach Joe McKeown said. “(They) just made plays when they had to, got to the foul line, made baskets as the shot clock was running down.”
The two players combined for 28 points, nearly half of the Cats’ total output, to help break the skid with a 60-57 win at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Neither player had been immune from NU’s recent offensive struggles. Reed began the season as a starter, but has come off the bench in nine of the past 10 games. Her 12 points, on 5-of-10 shooting, equaled her contributions in her previous three games combined.
But going into the game, offense was not even the first thing on the sophomore guard’s mind.
“I was more worried about defense, hoping that the offense would just come to me, but my teammates got me in it,” Reed said.
Ten of Reed’s points came in the second half, with the Cats clinging to a slim lead. NU cooled off considerably after making 8-of-9 shots from the floor to start the game, failing to score for the final 4:24 of the first half. But Reed gave the team a spark and got the offense back on track – the Cats stretched their three-point lead at intermission up to nine midway through the second half.
Cartwright, who scored a game-high 16 points, also came up big when the Cats needed it most. In her past four games, the junior forward connected on just 10-of-39 shots. She broke out of her slump against Michigan by hitting 75 percent of her tries from the field, more than double her shooting percentage on the season.
“I tried to drive, tried to get in the lane a lot,” Cartwright said. “It’s something me and my coach talked about – he wanted me to drive, draw the foul, get to the free throw line.”
Cartwright was vital to NU’s fast start, making three baskets in the first 10 minutes including a jumper that gave her team its biggest lead at 22-5. She made an impact on the defensive end as well, with three steals in the first four minutes of the game.
Point guard Jenny Eckhart also gave the Cats a boost on offense. Averaging 3.4 points and 3.3 shots per game, the junior poured in nine points on seven shots against Michigan before leaving late in the game with an apparent nose injury.
Even Jaeschke made her presence felt on the perimeter, sinking one from long distance with 5:54 remaining. She had only made one of her first 16 attempts this year from beyond the arc, but her second one came at a crucial point in the game.
“She’s double-teamed everywhere, but when she stepped back and drilled that three, I thought that was huge,” McKeown said.
