With senior guard Veronica Burton and senior forward Courtney Shaw leading the way, Northwestern handily defeated Loyola Chicago 63-47 in a crosstown rivalry.

The Wildcats (3-0, 0-0 Big Ten) jumped to an early lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Eight quick points in the opening four minutes from first-year forward Caileigh Walsh provided NU with a lead it would never relinquish. 

Then Burton’s show commenced. Burton, a preseason member of the John R. Wooden Award watch list, dished out seven assists along with five points in the Cats’ highest scoring quarter of the season.

“When I get the assists, it’s really credit to my teammates that are putting the ball in the basket,” Burton said. “We were just really getting what we wanted in transition. People were really running the floor at the pace we wanted and they hit shots.”

In what was a tale of two quarters, NU simply couldn’t buy a bucket in the second quarter. The Cats scored a season-low six points in the second period, going 2-for-11 from the field and 0-for-2 from 3-point range.

But even after such a dismal offensive display, NU’s patented Blizzard defense kept them in control. The Ramblers (1-2) went 4-for-13 from the field and turned the ball over nine times, while only totaling nine points.

The Cats held a 12-point lead at the intermission, but their defense was going to catalyze the offense. NU went on an 11-0 run midway through the third quarter to extinguish all hopes of a potential Loyola comeback. 

In the final quarter of regulation, the Cats and Ramblers exchanged small runs throughout. Burton had seven points, with first-year guard Jillian Brown adding five points and five rebounds in the quarter. Burton finished the night with 16 points, seven assists and three steals. More impressive, however, is her plus/minus of 34 in 31 minutes of action for the Cats.

Coach Joe McKeown sung Burton’s praises in the postgame news conference and jokingly wished she was a first-year.

“She could care less how many points she scores, she just wants to win,” McKeown said. “She has a great sense, which you really can’t teach, of what’s needed next. Maybe it’s a steal, maybe it’s a rebound, maybe it’s a great pass. She just has an incredible knack of whatever we need at the time, she just finds a way to do (it).”

It was a sloppy game for both squads, but NU’s defensive effort compensated for the squad’s mistakes. 

The Cats forced 26 turnovers — Burton said the pregame goal was 25 — and held Loyola under 30% shooting from the field and from beyond the arc. The Blizzard also held its third opponent below 50 points.

With match-ups against Power-6 opponents DePaul, Pittsburgh and Texas A&M coming in the next two weeks, NU looks to build from their early-season defensive momentum and clean up some of the mistakes on the offensive end.

“We got to be a little more consistent, quarter to quarter,” McKeown said. “I’ve got to be a little more patient because yes, you want to be playing at a high level in November, and it’s hard, especially when you have new players and new talent.”

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