Women’s Basketball

The old adage goes that all great athletes need to have a short memory. And junior guard Lindsey Pulliam doesn’t just have a short memory, coach Joe McKeown said she has “amnesia.”

It’s probably her strongest attribute, according to McKeown, and she displayed it Wednesday.

Less than a week after putting up a dud 1-for-12 game against Valparaiso, Pulliam was the best player on the Welsh-Ryan Arena court against Colgate. The junior opened the scoring with a pull-up jumper, and she and Northwestern never looked back. Pulliam scored a game-high 18 points and the Wildcats held a double-digit lead for most of the game as NU (5-0) defeated the visiting Raiders (4-2) 73-44.

“She has whatever the light is past green,” McKeown said. “Neon green? I don’t know. There’s probably another color that she has. And she’s gonna have that ‘til she graduates.”

Pulliam scored from all over the court, shooting 8 of 15 in only 21 minutes of action — she did not play in the fourth quarter. She looked to be in rhythm all game and she wasn’t afraid to put the ball on the floor.

But the Maryland native did not do it all herself. In the first quarter, when NU scored 22 points, senior forward Abi Scheid dropped seven points and senior center Abbie Wolf contributed six points in addition to Pulliam’s eight.

“The better we start the better the game goes,” sophomore guard Lauryn Satterwhite said. “It was really good for us to jump out on them quick.”

Defensively, the Cats’ defense gave the Raiders fits all day. NU had active hands in the passings lanes and on dribble drives, forcingColgate to take a lot of long-distance jumpers. And the Raiders struggled to make those shots, going a miserable 2 of 22 from beyond the arc.

In total, the Cats forced 17 turnovers, with sophomore guard Veronica Burton leading the way with five steals, which occurred in only 21 minutes, and Satterwhite adding three swipes of her own.

Satterwhite said the game plan was to apply a lot of ball pressure, and she feels the team executed that game plan.

“We were just able to play off our defense today,” McKeown said. “Just really solid effort by a lot of people.”

Sophomore guard Sydney Wood stuffed the stat sheet, leading the team in rebounds with eight and assists with seven plus dropping seven points. Sophomore forward Courtney Shaw also added 10 points off the bench.

While NU did score cross the 70-point threshold for the first time all season, it did so with two of its shooting percentages well below average. The Cats shot a mediocre 16-for-25 from the free throw line and the team was 3 of 18 on 3-pointers.

With the win, NU moves to 5-0, and a win Sunday over DePaul could catapult the Cats into the national rankings. But in the short term, the victory means the players will be able to fully celebrate Thanksgiving.

“We wouldn’t honestly enjoy the holiday if we came out here and played badly anyways,” Shaw said.

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