Once again, Northwestern let a halftime lead slip through its hands, losing on the road to Penn State (11-16, 6-11 Big Ten), 65-50.
In a game that featured nine lead changes and eight ties, the Wildcats (7-21, 3-14) lost by 15 after leading by as much as seven with less than one minute to go in the first half. But the Lady Lions scored four quick points to cut the lead to three before heading into the locker room for halftime.
While Penn State held the lead for just more than a minute in the first half, in the second half, both teams were neck-and-neck. Neither team led by more than three in the second period until Tyra Grant hit a free throw with 6:17 left in the game put the Lady Lions up by four. The Cats never led again after the 9:14 mark.
“We didn’t come out with as much intensity (in the second half) as we wanted to,” guard Kristin Cartwright said. “Our defense was fine, but our offense didn’t execute, especially in the second half. At the seven-minute mark, they pulled away and we weren’t able to raise our intensity.”
NU was unable to defend Grant, who scored 15 of her game-high 23 points in the second half. Guard Meshea Williams also lit the Cats up for 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
The Cats did get 19 points out of their leading scorer, center Amy Jaeschke, but the sophomore’s poor free throw shooting doomed the team down the stretch. Four NU players attempted at least one free throw; Jaeschke was the only one to miss, going 5-of-11 from the line.
“It’s just something you have to go back to the gym and work on, make sure you get a lot of free throws in,” Jaeschke said.
Cartwright turned in an equally bittersweet performance for the Cats. The junior made plenty of magic happen on offense, sometimes willing the ball into the basket to finish with 14 points, but also committed a game-high eight turnovers. NU finished with 27 turnovers, compared to Penn State’s 11.
“The defense they were playing, they were switching a lot,” Cartwright said. “They were denying a lot, so that caused some problems for me at least. I think I was trying to force it too much into the post to get it to Amy and not seeing the weak-side double coming. I just wasn’t seeing the Penn State defense very well.”
Overall, the Cats were out-muscled inside. More than half of the Lady Lions’ 65 points came in the paint, compared to just 22 for the Cats. Penn State also outrebounded the Cats on the offensive boards 14 to six, and scored 16 second-chance points.
The game was particularly physical for Jaeschke, although she doled out as much punishment as she received. All three of Jaeschke’s fouls were offensive fouls for elbowing her defender in the post. Penn State reserve center Janessa Wolff fouled out for largely the same reason after playing only 16 minutes.
Jaeschke said she doesn’t mind a physical game, but she’d prefer if the officials didn’t blow the whistle so much and just let both teams play.
“I think the refs did a good job of controlling the game, although usually I like to play without a lot of calls,” she said.
Both teams suffered from poor outside shooting, but it affected NU (2-of-12 from behind the arc) more than Penn State (1-of-12). With the success the Lady Lions had inside, they didn’t need to hit threes, but the Cats could have used the boost.
“Three-pointers get people confident, get people excited to play defense,” Cartwright said. “When you’re not hitting them, the momentum is not there like it would be.”
