It was Groundhog Day this past Wednesday, but it felt like Groundhog Day Sunday, as Northwestern and Penn State engaged in another wired game. About two weeks prior, the two teams were deadlocked at 54 with minutes to go, and Penn State came out on top.

Today, the Wildcats and Nittany Lions were tied up at 66. This time, NU fired away from behind the arc, making 10 threes in a game for the first time since last February. This time, the ‘Cats had five players score in double-digits. This time, NU came back. This time, the Cats won — signaling a glimmer of hope for six more weeks of basketball.

“I thought defensively, we really locked down on their best players,” said Coach Joe McKeown. “And Veronica (Burton) is always going to give you a chance to win the game.”

Consistently providing her team with relentless energy, hard work and points, Burton played a critical role in the victory. She finished with 22 points, eight assists and four steals.

But ultimately, it was the threes that won this game. Down three, about halfway through the fourth quarter, junior guard Laya Hartman tied it up and then graduate captain Lauryn Satterwhite brought the Cats ahead with another three. And after one more lead change, Northwestern took the game home.

Satterwhite finished with three 3-pointers, Hartman had three, first-year guard Jillian Brown had two and Burton and freshman forward Caileigh Walsh both had one. The Cats poured it on against the Nittany Lions today.

“We made 10 threes?” asked McKeown. “Alright. I credit my coaching staff because they have these guys in the gym. But if we can make 10 threes in a game, we’re going to be tough to beat.”

Northwestern has won consecutive road games for the first time all season, and now, with four road games out of their final six, “tough to beat” is going to have to be imperative. 

“I thought we played extremely well at Purdue,” McKeown said, acknowledging Friday’s success. “And today, we struggled early, but we came right back.” 

Northwestern has one more road game at Minnesota on Friday before finally making it back to Evanston to play Naz Hillmon and No. 6 Michigan. The Wildcats have had at least four players score in double-digits in consecutive games and have averaged 79 points in that brief stretch, so if the ‘Cats keep shooting it well, they might get out of this road stretch unscathed.

“It’s really encouraging for us,” McKeown said. “We’re going into a difficult stretch. You just don’t know what’s going to happen. So we’ll just play whoever’s next. I guess that’s the attitude you have to have.”

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