It was a battle of the Graces as Northwestern fell to Missouri 85-70 in its second matchup of the Fort Myers Tip-Off, picking up its first loss of the season.
The Wildcats (6-1, 0-0 Big Ten) were led by senior forward Grace Sullivan’s 31 points, while Tigers (7-2, 0-0 SEC) guard Grace Slaughter matched Sullivan’s effort with 33 points of her own.
NU started the first quarter hot, making five of its first six shots to build an early 11-5 lead. However, Missouri responded by closing out the first quarter with five straight made shots of its own to keep the game close.
The second quarter saw both teams struggle to make their shots, with the ’Cats shooting just 7-for-17 from the field and 2-for-7 from beyond the arc. The Tigers failed to capitalize on those missed opportunities, shooting just 6-for-17 themselves.
After the half, NU continued to fight in a back-and forth battle that stayed close for most of the third quarter. A 3-pointer by sophomore guard Xamiya Walton tied the game at 58 with 1:32 to go in the third, but that was as close as the ’Cats came to a lead in the second half.
NU shooting took a downward spiral in the second half, and the fourth quarter showed the worst of the ’Cats, with the team only putting up 10 points.
Here are three takeaways from the ’Cats’ second leg of their back-to-back:
1. Grace vs. Grace
Throughout the early portion of the season, the ’Cats have lived and died by Sullivan’s shot. When she scores, as she’s done most of the time this season, NU is dominant.
However, when she struggles, as she did against IU-Indianapolis where she shot just under 45%, the game becomes too close for comfort.
The ’Cats found a power-4 team in Missouri that has a similarly unstoppable star, Slaughter. The two went back and forth throughout the contest, with each possession coming down to which Grace was hotter.
The fourth quarter proved a turning point in the battle. Sullivan struggled to get shots off, not putting up her first attempt of the quarter for over five minutes.
In the end, it was Slaughter who got the better of Sullivan, notching her 1,000th career point on a late free throw as she turned in a career afternoon.
2. Tigers’ 3-point shooting proves fatal
NU hasn’t found its way with the 3-point shot at all this season, shooting just 29.2% coming into this game.
While concerning, this trend was mostly mitigated by the fact that the ’Cats have been strong at defending the three, allowing opponents to make just 26.2% entering their matchup against the Tigers.
Missouri is not those teams. The Tigers made 40% of their threes entering this game, and improved on this number against the ’Cats, making 10 of their 20 attempts. The deep ball proved especially effective for Missouri in its late first quarter run to take the lead, where the Tigers made three triples.
Not to be outdone, NU put up one of its most efficient 3-point shooting performances of the season through three quarters. The ’Cats, led by senior guard Caroline Lau, who made two of her three long-ball attempts, looked on pace to shoot over 35% from deep for just the second time this season. However, the fourth quarter prevented this, as NU made just 2 of its 11 attempts to shoot 11.2% for the quarter.
Despite the strong shooting performance, the ’Cats were still outdone by the Tigers from deep. In the tight back-and-forth games the NU hopes to find itself in during conference play, the ’Cats will need to find a balance of their offensive performance against the Tigers and the stout defensive three-point team that dominated earlier in the season.
3. Secondary scoring disappears
As the battle of the Graces took shape, the secondary scoring for NU completely disappeared. Through the first three quarters, only two ’Cats had made more than two field goals — Sullivan and graduate student guard Tate Lash with three. Only Sullivan scored double digits.
Coach Joe McKeown limited his rotation to just eight players, with only seven receiving significant minutes. The bench duo scored twelve points, all from deep. Walton hit three threes and sophomore guard Claire Keswick added another.
Meanwhile, paint threat Tayla Thomas struggled, shooting just 2-for-9 for four points, well below her season average of 11 points. Thomas’ struggles were replicated by Casey Harter, who scored five points in the first quarter before being blanked for the rest of the game.
Lau added only eight points in her 34 minutes as she struggled with turnovers late. The ’Cats had the chance to end the third quarter with all the momentum by making the tying basket, but Lau made a poor pass that was intercepted by junior guard Shannon Dowell, who drove down the court on a possession that ended with two points for the Tigers.
The ’Cats return home and will look to get back to winning ways when they take on Kansas on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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