Youthful Northwestern may finally meet its match Thursday.
The Wildcats (13-7, 3-4 Big Ten) will hit the road to face the Indiana Hoosiers (15-5, 2-5) and their freshman sensation Larryn Brooks. The Hoosiers’ diminutive guard stands just 5-foot-5 but ranks fourth in the Big Ten in scoring at 17.4 points per game.
The matchup is unusual in that NU is spearheaded by its own trio of talented freshman. Leading the pack is forward Nia Coffey, who recorded a double-double in the Cats’ last game, a victory over Nebraska and won the Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor for the third time this season. Getting Coffey going and shutting down Brooks will be key to an NU victory.
“(Brooks) is a great player,” sophomore guard Maggie Lyon said, “but we’ve stopped great players before.”
Lyon figures to play a big role for a team that, despite its slew of talented rookies, plans to increasingly rely on a handful of experienced veterans in the latter half of the season.
“For us to be successful, (Lyon) has to be on the floor,” coach Joe McKeown said.
That seemed to be the case Sunday when Lyon played all 40 minutes against Nebraska. She only produced 5 points and five rebounds, but McKeown still found her to be a vital ingredient in his recipe for success.
“(Lyon) is so explosive as a player,” McKeown said. “At any time, she could just go out and get you six, eight, 10 straight points.”
Senior guard La’Terria Taylor has also seen some important playing time of late. The co-captain didn’t play at all her first two seasons at NU but has since become a valuable source of leadership on the court. She only recorded six minutes against Nebraska. However, in her case, McKeown preferred quality over quantity.
“She gave us a great spark at the end of the first half,” McKeown said. “I’m really proud of her. … Seniors, every day, give us a little shot in the arm leadership-wise.”
With that experience in tow, McKeown and his team are confident they’ll be able to contain Brooks and her dynamic scoring abilities.
“It’s going to take an awareness of not letting her play to her strengths,” McKeown said. “She’s really quick, really fast, steps back, shoots threes, gets to the rim, so she’s having a great year for (Indiana). … It’s going to take everybody to just be aware of the things that she does really well.”
Even if Brooks is slowed down, the game is likely to be a close one with the Cats and Hoosiers having very similar offenses and defenses in terms of points scored and points allowed per game. NU has staked quite a claim to the nickname “Cardiac Cats” with a number of close contests this year, but McKeown believes his team plays its best when games go down to the wire.
“We’re starting to execute a little better the last couple minutes of the game,” he said. “I think that’s been a growth area for us. … We’re getting better at doing what we want to do at the end of a game.”
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