After a four-game losing streak and a 2-5 record in their last seven contests, the pieces finally clicked back into place in Northwestern’s 80-67 win against Purdue yesterday.

Just about everything the team was missing in the past seven games came back in full force in the Wildcats’ victory. NU held the Boilermakers under 70 points. They forced 16 turnovers and hauled in 11 steals (six of them coming from senior star and Big Ten steals leader Veronica Burton). With the Cats holding the lead for most of the game, things felt right again for Coach Joe McKeown’s team.

“We did a really good job of attacking the basket and getting to the foul line,” McKeown said. “That was one of our goals going into this game. And having Veronica Burton — she’s such a great playmaker. She just gets people the ball at the right places.”

Burton contributed 26 points and six rebounds to her steals total. It was her first 20-point contest since the team’s big upset against Iowa on Jan. 6. 

“She’s an incredible leader,” said McKeown. “She just makes everybody better every day in practice. And you know, when your best player is your hardest worker — that’s what we were dealing with.”

Three other pieces — Lauryn Satterwhite, Laya Hartman and Caileigh Walsh — put up double-digit points (11, 13, and 11, respectively), which was the first time the team has done that since Dec. 17, 2021 against Temple. This time, the Wildcats put up a season-high 80 points.

It has been a tough stretch dating back to mid-December. The team had more than two weeks of games and practices shut down because of COVID-19, and after knocking off Iowa, the Wildcats have had several postponements and other scheduling changes. This game was supposed to be played on Thursday, but weather had delayed it one day. And now, with one less day to prepare, NU travels to University Park on Sunday to play Penn State.

Despite these schedule changes, Friday’s performance showed no signs of fatigue or feebleness.

“We’ve been playing well,” McKeown said. “We’ve been practicing well. We’ve just lost a lot of games. We just haven’t played a lot, so it’s hard to get momentum.”

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