Northwestern’s Big Ten Tournament chances have slipped further out of reach after a 92-65 loss to Illinois Sunday.
The Wildcats (8-19, 2-14 Big Ten) entered the home matchup against the Fighting Illini (19-8, 9-7 Big Ten) with the chance to avenge a tight 74-71 loss that came down to the final buzzer in January. Instead, NU left Welsh-Ryan Arena, extending its losing streak to nine games.
It remains second-to-last in conference standings, two spots removed from a Big Ten Tournament berth.
Entering the second half of January’s matchup, the ’Cats only trailed the Fighting Illini by seven points. But on Sunday, NU had a steeper hill to climb.
Illinois led 57-33 after the first half thanks to a nearly flawless performance from the three-point line and charity stripe, with both percentages in the high 80s.
“All of a sudden, they went eight for nine in the first half from three,” coach Joe McKeown said. “We never could get our feet back.”
The Fighting Illini outpaced the ’Cats in nearly every metric in the first half, securing 21 of their 57 points off turnovers. Illinois also grabbed 18 rebounds — three times as many as NU.
As the lead extended to over 30 in the second half, the ’Cats’ chances of repeating a comeback fell away.
In the January matchup, sophomore guard Xamiya Walton’s career-high 19 points kept NU in the game. On Sunday, another sophomore stepped up on the offensive front: forward Tayla Thomas.
Thomas was the highest-scoring player on the floor, notching 25 points for a career second-bestas well as a team-high six rebounds.
Thomas put up the team’s first nine points on her own as senior forward Grace Sullivan, the Big Ten’s third-leading scorer, sat out most of the first quarter due to foul trouble. Thomas only received offensive help with a 3-pointer from Walton late in the first quarter.
Even as the Fighting Illini ran away with the score, the sophomore forward posted nine more points in the second half, including a final triple in the fourth quarter.
“Keep attacking, going up no matter what the score says,” Thomas said. “We can’t just let up even when we’re down. Just keep going with what works. And I think that’s the mindset that everybody has.”
Despite the losses that have marred McKeown’s final season with the ’Cats, all four of the team’s sophomores have had moments to shine.
Thomas’ performance comes exactly one week after sophomore guard Kat Righeimer scored a career-high 18 points that ignited a brief NU comeback in an 81-71 loss to Penn State.
Walton, the third ’Cat to post double-digit points alongside Thomas and Sullivan on Sunday, broke out when she scored 17 points in the team’s season-opening win over IU-Indianapolis in November.
Later that month, sophomore guard Claire Keswick hit six 3-pointers against Cleveland State. McKeown said Keswick has not played since January due to injury.
And Thomas herself scored a career-high 30 points in NU’s narrow 69-68 loss to Loyola University Chicago in December.
For McKeown, those performances speak to NU’s development program amid an evolved Big Ten recruitment landscape dominated by the transfer portal.
“We’ve always been able to replace great players with young players who got experience,” he said. “That’s changed. That philosophy of running a program is really difficult, but the player development, we’ll always be proud of that here.”
Two opportunities remain for NU to secure a spot in the Big Ten Tournament. The team travels to face Maryland on Wednesday and closes out the regular season against Purdue at home on Sunday.
“If we take each game as it is, we can re-center ourselves and focus on the next goal,” Sullivan said. “I don’t think we need to dwell too much.”
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