When a team like Northwestern pours in a season-high 79 points and shoots 55.8 percent from the field, chances are that the game will end in victory. After all, the Wildcats failed to top 50 points in six of their first 17 Big Ten games and have been prone to five- or six-minute scoreless streaks at the most inopportune times, allowing close contests to become blowouts.
Despite the scoring outburst, NU still could not keep up with Iowa, the conference’s second-best offensive team. The Cats (7-22, 3-15 Big Ten) fell to the Hawkeyes (20-9, 13-5) 86-79 on Senior Day at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Sunday and will be the 10th seed in next week’s Big Ten tournament.
“We did a real good job executing offensively,” coach Joe McKeown said. “Our problem was Iowa’s real good offensively, too, so you can’t trade baskets with them.”
The first half was a back-and-forth battle, featuring nine lead changes and eight ties.
Both teams got off to quick starts, combining to hit 15-of-25 shots in the first nine minutes. NU led by one with three minutes left before halftime, but committed three turnovers the rest of the way. Iowa reeled off eight consecutive points to take a 36-29 lead into the locker room.
“You never want a team to go on a run right into halftime because that never bodes well,” said sophomore center Amy Jaeschke, who scored eight points in the first 10 minutes but was held scoreless the rest of the half.
The Hawkeyes’ momentum carried over into the second half, as they extended their advantage to 15 points after just seven minutes.
When the Cats closed the gap to eight points, the Hawkeyes responded by hitting 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions and adding a jumper to grab a 66-50 lead. They also had a 20-3 edge in second-chance points, finishing the game with 13 offensive rebounds.
But unlike the game six weeks ago in Iowa City, Iowa, in which NU trailed by five at intermission and lost by 28, Iowa was unable to coast to an easy win.
“I think they’re the most improved team in the Big Ten,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said of NU. “They are so much more offensive-minded – they cut so hard off of screens. When we went up 16 it didn’t bother them, they kept fighting back where before I think they might have quit in that situation.”
The Cats’ play down low helped keep them in the game. They scored 26 points in the paint in the second half after just six in the first. Bluder said her team switched out of its zone defense to a man-to-man scheme because NU was finding holes, but as a result some space opened up in the middle.
Amy Jaeschke and her cousin, senior forward Ellen Jaeschke, took full advantage.
After scoring only 10 points between them in the first game against Iowa, the Jaeschkes contributed 32 points and 20 after halftime, shooting a combined 66.7 percent.
“Our guards were finding us,” the older Jaeschke said. “We were able to work high-low a little bit, so that helped.”
Iowa’s 16-point lead dwindled to four after a layup by freshman forward Brittany Orban with two minutes remaining. Orban tallied a team-high 18 points, the fifth time in the last 11 games she has led the Cats in scoring. She was one of five NU players in double figures, along with Amy and Ellen Jaeschke (16 and 14 points, respectively), junior forward Kristin Cartwright (12) and junior point guard Jenny Eckhart (10).
But the Cats never crept closer than four points and could not come up with stops down the stretch.
“They were attacking the basket a lot, and a lot of screens off the ball that made it a little more difficult to catch up to your man, to get back and cut your man off,” Orban said.
Free throw shooting was also an important factor. NU hit 15-of-17 at the line, but Iowa converted 21-of-25 attempts to prevent its lead from shrinking any farther. The Hawkeyes lead the Big Ten in free throw percentage and rank fourth in the country in that category.
“They’ve got three seniors who scored over 4,000 points (combined, in their Iowa careers), so they’re obviously pretty poised at the end of the game,” McKeown said.
