As time ran out in the first half of Northwestern’s 76-67 loss on Thursday night, Michigan guard Kate Thompson hit a three-pointer to put the Wolverines up by 12. It would be the last time the Wildcats trailed by single digits until a little more than two minutes left to play.
Despite a late flurry of threes, NU was unable to surmount Michigan’s well-established first half lead at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
“It was just a really bad defensive effort by us,” coach Joe McKeown said. “We left them open, which I’m not sure why.”
Michigan shot 46.7 percent on the Cats, including 42.9 percent from behind the arc, setting an impossible pace for NU’s offense to match.
Guard Veronica Hicks led the Wolverines with 19 points, one of three Michigan players in double-digits.
Hicks made 6-of-8 shots inside the arc, the bulk of which came off layups after driving to the hoop.
“We just didn’t do a very good job of staying in front of her,” McKeown said.
Possibly even more damaging to the Cats, Hicks grabbed 14 rebounds despite her 5-foot-9 stature.
“That’s really just unacceptable for a player like that to dominate the boards,” senior center Amy Jaeschke said. “It’s really been an Achilles heel for us in a lot of games this year.”
Jaeschke led all scorers with 23 points while pulling in 12 boards for a double-double. However, as Michigan built its lead in the first half, Jaeschke was simply the only productive outlet for NU. She scored 15 of the Cats’ first 18 points, by which time the Wolverines had already built a 14-point lead.
“I was able to get some shots up, some points up,” Jaeschke said. “That really opened up the game for the guards in the second half.”
But by the time Jaeschke’s teammates started hitting shots, the outcome had already been determined. NU hit four three-pointers with a little more than the two minutes left in the game, cutting the deficit to as few as five points.
“We started knocking down shots in the second half, which helped give us a boost,” sophomore forward Kendall Hackney said. “But we dug ourselves a big hole, and it was too late.”
Though NU actually won the second half 42-39, the Cats still struggled to halt the Wolverines’ potent shooting. Michigan shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half and committed just nine turnovers throughout the entire game.
The Wolverines even had success in the post, a rarity for teams facing Jaeschke, the Big Ten’s leading shot-blocker. Center Rachel Sheffer contributed 16 points, 14 in the second half alone.
“They made some tough shots, they really did,” Hackney said. “Shooting over Amy is not easy, and they knocked them down.”
While NU was unable to cut the game to single digits until late, the Cats did show sparks throughout the second half, rallying from deficits as large as 18. However, every time NU rattled off a few consecutive buckets, Michigan responded with some clutch shooting of its own.
“When we beat Purdue here, when we beat Ohio State, when we scored, we got stops,” McKeown said. “It’s a big thing that we have to be able to do both, to score and then get stops.”
The Cats were hurt on both ends of the floor by the limited play of junior forward Brittany Orban, who suffered a knee injury in a 54-43 loss to Purdue on Sunday. Orban played just 14 minutes and was held scoreless and grabbed one rebound.
The Cats will have a bye this weekend before facing Minnesota next Thursday, giving Orban time to get healthy and for the rest of the team to address its defensive shortcomings.
“We’ve just got to move forward to Minnesota,” McKeown said. “That’s probably the best thing we can do.”
