It took Northwestern nine and a half minutes to claw back from a 13-point halftime deficit and cut Wisconsin’s lead to just 41-38. The Wildcats had already scored more than double their number of first-half points and committed just two turnovers, far fewer than the 11 they had at the same point in the first period.
In the next 2:08, all the Cats’ progress was erased. The Badgers went on a backbreaking 9-0 run to claim a 12-point edge, all but putting the game away.
Other NU comeback bids were to no avail, as Wisconsin closed out a 60-51 win in the opening game of the Big Ten tournament on Thursday and earned the right to play Michigan State in the next round.
“Wisconsin played with a lot of poise today, ” coach Joe McKeown said. “I really thought we were going to win the game a couple times there, we just didn’t defend like we did all year.”
The Cats (7-23, 3-15) followed up their best 40 minutes of offense in an 86-79 loss to Iowa with their worst 20-minute scoring performance.
Seven of NU’s first eight possessions ended in turnovers, and the team had 10 miscues in the first seven and a half minutes. Freshman forward Brittany Orban put the Cats on the scoreboard for the first time with a layup six minutes into the game. After Orban’s hoop, NU was shut out for three more minutes.
There were also four- and three-minute scoreless stretches later on.
“We were making little mistakes we usually don’t make,” junior forward Kristin Cartwright said. “It got us a little rattled and it took us a while to get our composure back.”
The Cats’ inability to dictate the tempo as they did when they beat Wisconsin (17-13, 6-12 Big Ten) at Welsh-Ryan Arena two months ago was a main factor in the slow start.
“In that game, we kept the pace where we wanted it,” McKeown said. “Today, we couldn’t control it.”
McKeown made nine substitutions before the break, but nothing worked. NU entered the half down 25-12, having shot 5-of-22 from the field with 14 turnovers that Wisconsin turned into 13 points. Sophomore center and leading scorer Amy Jaeschke did not make her first basket until nearly 17 minutes had passed. The only reason the Cats were not in a deeper hole was that the Badgers shot only 34.6 percent.
The start of the second half was the complete opposite of the first. Freshman forward Maggie Mocchi came up with an offensive rebound and put it back in during the Cats’ first possession. NU scored four of the first five times it had the ball and equaled its scoring total before intermission after five minutes.
“We came out with the confidence we needed,” said Orban, who finished with a game-high 18 points. “We were looking inside and looking to get (Jaeschke) one-on-one more. It was just a matter of how the guards were rotating in the second half, and we did a better job in the second half looking to get her open passes.”
McKeown’s squad continued chipping away, with two free throws by Orban cutting Wisconsin’s lead to three. What made the Badgers’ ensuing run even more remarkable was that junior guard Alyssa Karel, was not in the game. Wisconsin’s leading scorer subbed out in between Orban’s free throws and did not return until the Cats scored to cut the margin back to 10.
The closest NU got the rest of the way was when it trailed 54-47 with 3:12 to go.
Though Karel led her team with 17 points, freshman guard Jade Davis did as much as anyone to sink the Cats’ chances. Davis, who averaged 2.7 points per game during the regular season, tallied all 11 of her points in the second half and made three shots from beyond the arc. Wisconsin made 54.8 percent from the field as a team after halftime, aided by NU’s defensive lapses.
“It didn’t help that we left them wide open,” McKeown said. “We went into some defenses where we just didn’t guard some people on purpose – they did a good job of substituting in people who made shots. We were trying to play chess instead of checkers. We played checkers in the first half. And we’re not good at checkers, obviously.”
