Women’s Basketball

With 12 points in the final five minutes of regulation, freshman guard Lindsey Pulliam nearly singlehandedly piloted a miraculous Northwestern comeback from 16 points down to force overtime against Indiana on Sunday.

The effort did not ultimately earn the Wildcats (9-15, 2-8 Big Ten) the win — they fell 78-73 after the extra frame — but it did earn Pulliam the title of Big Ten Freshman of the Week.

In the loss, the freshman from Maryland played a complete 45 minutes and tallied a career-high 33 points on 13-of-19 shooting, topping her previous career (and season) high of 29 points on Nov. 30 at Syracuse.

Pulliam came to Evanston with high expectations, ranked by ESPN the No. 60 recruit in the country coming out of high school, and has so far lived up to them.

Her 15.0 points-per-game average leads a young NU squad — as well as all Big Ten freshmen — by a sizeable margin this season. She’s improved her efficiency in recent weeks as well, shooting 58.7 percent from the field over her last three games.

With Monday’s announcement, Pulliam became the first Cats women’s basketball player to earn a conference award this season and the first to win Freshman of the Week since Nia Coffey did so four years ago.

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