Women’s Basketball

On Wednesday night, Northwestern simply could not hold on to the ball.

During the second quarter, freshman guard Jordan Hankins poorly passed to her left, sending a line drive right to Penn State coach Coquese Washington standing on the sideline in front of the bench. Hankins’ bad misfire was one of 21 Northwestern turnovers as Penn State (10-16, 5-10 Big Ten) rolled through the Wildcats (14-13, 3-12) 73-54 Wednesday at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

“That caught me way off guard,” coach Joe McKeown said of the giveaways. “I don’t know why we just seemed to break down, just panic a little bit and throw the ball away. Maybe we tried to play too fast sometimes.”

Hankins was far from the only NU player to turn the ball over. Junior point guard Ashley Deary
lobbed a ball so far over the head of junior forward Nia Coffey that Coffey made no attempt to grab the ball.

Beyond wide passes, the Cats gave the ball away in several other ways. In one case, junior center Allie Tuttle traveled while trying to make a pass.

Six Cats players turned the ball over at least once, and three — Deary, Hankins and senior guard Maggie Lyon — each committed at least four. NU finished with just 17 assists compared to the 21 turnovers.

“They came in an all variety pack,” McKeown said. “Different flavors, came from everywhere, came from really good passers.”

The Cats’ turnover problems were uncharacteristic. The 21 turnovers tied a season high and marked just the second time NU reached 20 giveaways. On six occasions this season the Cats have committed fewer than 10 turnovers.

Further, NU’s 12 first half turnovers were more than the 11 they totaled in the first game between the two teams, a 79-72 Penn State win on New Year’s Eve.

Penn State capitalized on the Cats’ sloppiness, scoring 14 points off turnovers. The Nittany Lions, however, were frequently careless with the ball themselves, totaling 24 giveaways of their own.

Despite NU’s mistakes, the Cats outscored Penn State in points off turnovers with 24, and the defense was at times the cause of Nittany Lions turnovers. Entering Wednesday, NU led the Big Ten in both turnover margin and assist to turnover ratio.

On Wednesday, however, McKeown had little explanation for why his team was so careless with the ball.

“Sloppy game, we turned it over a lot, they turned it over a lot too,” McKeown said. “I don’t know if we were flat from playing Sunday against Maryland so hard. No excuses.”

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @ckpaxton