Women’s Basketball

Lindsey Pulliam was hit once, then twice and then a third time as she drove to the basket in the middle of the first quarter Monday at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The junior guard had to make it through all of this contact to even put up this left-handed layup, but she placed the ball perfectly off the top corner of the glass and into the basket.

This, Pulliam signaled as she pointed to the ground, was her court.

That was the most resistance Northwestern faced all game. Led by Pulliam’s 17 points, the Wildcats (8-1) never trailed in a 74-47 blowout win over UT Arlington (5-4). NU couldn’t be stopped, and scored as many points in the first half as the Mavericks did in the first 35 minutes.

“Basketball is a mental game,” junior guard Jordan Hamilton said. “When you punch a team in the mouth early on, some teams don’t react well to that. Coming out strong from the gate gets the other team frazzled.”

Coach Joe McKeown said he expected tough competition from UT Arlington. Even though the Mavericks play in the Sun Belt, they took No. 6 Louisville to the wire earlier this season and beat Kansas State on the road.

But the Cats showed this game wouldn’t be close early on, building a 10-0 lead after the first four minutes. After that, the floodgates opened and NU had its best scoring half of the season. The Cats led 45-26 at the break and never led by fewer than 19 points in the second half.

“When you make shots, that uplifts your defense, and we saw that tonight,” coach Joe McKeown said. “That energizes us on the defensive end. We made some dagger threes and did a great job sharing the ball in that stretch.”

Four players finished in double figures, with senior forward Abi Scheid chipping in 15 points and sophomore guard Veronica Burton adding 13 off three made 3-point shots. Hamilton had a season-high 11 points in 19 minutes, the most she’s played since the season opener.

The junior guard has been a starter ever since her first game in 2017, but she’s struggled with a nagging injury that caused her to miss five games. Hamilton returned off the bench last Saturday against Valparaiso but played just ten minutes. Monday against UT Arlington, Hamilton showed her improved athleticism by blocking a shot and later taking a steal all the way to the basket in the second half.

The Cats now have six days off before traveling to Florida for the West Palm Invitational for their final two games before Big Ten play begins.

“We don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves,” Hamilton said. “We’re always talking about how it’s not who we play, it’s how we play. We’re going in every single game and worrying about ourselves and making sure we’re getting better every time.”

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Twitter: @2021_Charlie