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By: Justin Nam /// NNN Sports

Evanston, Ill –  The bench was cheering, the coaches were clapping and the crowd was impressed: Northwestern Women’s Basketball (22-6, 12-5 B1G) proved they belong Thursday night after an impressive 80-60 victory over the #20 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (20-8, 11-6 B1G).

Much was made of this team over the last week after the Wildcats were given their first Associated Press poll ranking,  at #25, for the first time in 19 years. Coming into possibly their biggest test of the season, the ‘Cats held an impressive seven game Big Ten win streak, and they answered the bell by pushing it to eight.

Northwestern went into halftime with a 32-24 lead, but the jets came on during the second period.

“I just loved how we closed the game. We had the lead and we played really well with the lead tonight, especially in the last five minutes.” Head coach Joe McKeown said after the game.  “I just felt like we found another gear.”

That new gear was thanks large in part to the play of sophomore point guard Ashley Deary who scored 19 points along with 4 steals. She was also able to break down the full-court press Rutgers used for much of the game.

“Lanes just opened up for me and everyone else, and that’s kind of how we executed.” Deary said.

Nia Coffey was once again impressive, notching her seventh double-double in eight contests scoring 15 points with 10 rebounds.

“She’s a great player. [Rutgers] are a great rebounding team and she just went toe-to-toe with them.” McKeown said.

The offense for the Wildcats was a balanced attack as five players scored in double digits along with 19 total assists. They also scored 48 second half points while shooting 62.1 percent from the field in the period.

Junior forward Lauren Douglas, who has dealt with injuries recently, was a model of efficiency scoring 13 points in just 19 minutes and added a flashy spin-move layup to get the crowd on its feet.

“On any given night anyone on this team can have 15 points.” Douglas said. “I’m feeling a lot more comfortable just getting back into the flow of things.”

Although Northwestern has future NCAA Tournament hopes in front of them, Coach McKeown is holding fast to a presently focused mentality.

“I’m just really excited that we’re playing well at the end of the year.” He said. “With [the Northwestern Men’s Team] winning last night, and we had a really loud crowd tonight. There’s a lot of excitement about Northwestern basketball and that’s great for our players. They feel that now. We just want to go one at a time.”

The excitement is warranted as the Wildcats have now won four games against ranked opponents this season and are looking to extend that streak as the #5 Maryland Terrapins will visit Evanston on Sunday. Tip-off for that game is set for 12 p.m.

By: Justin Nam /// NNN Sports

1st Half Reaction

1. Offensive Rebounds Galore

Coming into this contest, the Wildcats ranked dead last in offensive rebounds per game (10.9) in the Big Ten. Contrary to their season performances thus far, they posted an impressive nine o-boards in the 1st half. Rutgers isn’t normally a rebounding machine, ranked 8th in the Big Ten in defensive rebound percentage (.669), but the Wildcats will look to build on their early success. That said, they also allowed five offensive rebounds to Rutgers, a statistic they have struggled with all season long.

2. Maggie Lyon On Fire

Lyon already as 13 points on an efficient 5-8 shooting at the end of the 1st half. She is also 3-6 from beyond the arch, stretching her current 3-point shooting streak to 33 straight games. Coming into the game Lyon was ranked 9th in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting percentage at 38.8 percent. She currently leads all scorers in this game and has also posted three rebounds and three assists to add to her point total.

3. Shooting Woes

Although the Wildcats have a 32-24 halftime lead, they have struggled early on from the field. They are currently shooting 37.8 percent (14-37). Coming into this one the ‘Cats were ranked 7th in the Big Ten shooting 41.8 percent from the field. Several of the missed attempts were a result of missed layups by the ‘Cats. The opportunities were available for Northwestern as they were able to break apart Rutgers’ early full-court press, but many shots were missed, including an uncharacteristic botched wide open layup by Nia Coffey with 7:18 remaining in the 1st. She bore much of the struggles from the field, shooting only 3-11.

 By Greg Mroz

EVANSTON, Ill – The last time Northwestern won four consecutive games in Big Ten play, the Vietnam war was at its peak, “I’m A Believer” by the Monkees was the number one song on the Billboard Top 100 Chart, and Chris Collins wasn’t even born yet.

That year was 1967, but no longer is it the year that represents that Big Ten winning streak.

The Northwestern Wildcats upset the Indiana Hoosiers Wednesday night, 72-65, winning their fourth straight conference game.

Of the four wins during the streak, this one may have been the most complete performance.

“We are playing well, the guys are well, the guys are confident, and there’s nothing like winning.” Head coach Chris Collins said after the game.

Tre Demps lead Northwestern (14-14, 5-10 B1G) with 23 points on 8-for-12 shooting, while Alex Olah earned his second double-double in three games with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Freshman Vic Law finished with 14 points, making all three shots he attempted from beyond the arc.

We’re humble but we’re hungry,” Demps said. “We’re not satisfied with where we’re at — I think everyone bought in to fighting.”

The fight that Demps referred to wasn’t there early on the defensive end. Indiana went 8-for-12 from the three-point line in the first half, with junior guard Nick Zeisloft converting four to lead all Hoosiers in the first half with 12. Indiana (19-10, 9-7 B1G) was able to play well into the Northwestern zone defense, getting open looks from various spots around the perimeter. Northwestern kept up by turning the first half into a shootout, shooting 51.7 percent from the field.

Collins knew that the team that locked down on defense would be the one to claim victory.

“I said to the team at half time that whoever had an extended series of stops is going to win the game,” Collins said.

Indiana cooled off in the second half, going a stretch of 10:06 without a field goal. The Hoosiers went 3-for-17 from beyond the arc in the second half, going 2-for-15 until the under-2 second minute mark. After scoring at the 13:23 mark to cut the lead to 49-48 , Indiana did not score again until 3:17 left in the game. The Hoosiers put up a 6-0 run to make it 62-54  but the Wildcats made four consecutive free throws, 2 apiece from Demps and Olah to stretch the lead back to 66-54 with 1:33 left.

After each team scored two to tie the game at 42 early in the second half, Sanjay Lumpkin hit a three that gave Northwestern a 45-42 lead. Vic Law came back and hit his third three pointer to put the Wildcats up 48-43, but Troy Williams sank Indiana’s 10th three-pointer of the night on the next possession to make it 48-46 Northwestern near the 15-minute mark. With the score 49-48, Tre Demps hit a contested two, a fade-away three, an another contested two that put Northwestern up 56-48 with twelve minutes left.

With Northwestern’s lead stretched to 10 with under eight minutes left, the Wildcats continued to play good defense and prevent Indiana from getting any high percentage shot opportunities. A beautiful Bryant McIntosh pass to a backcutting Alex Olah put Northwestern up 62-48. Indiana countered with back to back threes to cut the Wildcat lead to 67-60, and then got a three point play from Troy Williams to get it to 69-63. After Tre Demps went 1-for-2 at the line on the ensuing possession, Williams came back down and scored again to make it 70-65. Alex Olah was fouled and made both shots that stretched the lead to seven and iced the game.

Indiana’s offense may have been their downfall in the second half, shooting 28 percent from the field after the break, but for head coach Tom Crean, allowing Tre Demps to take over is what caused the game to slip away.

“We did not do a good enough job in the second half on Tre Demps,” Crean said. “I’d like to tell you it’s a bunch of other things, its not. Tre Demps did a better job than we did.”

The Wildcats look to keep the ball rolling on Saturday in Champaign against Illinois as they aim for their fifth-straight conference win, and fifth overall. That’s certainly a far cry from two weeks ago when the Wildcats were 1-10 in conference play and searching for a direction.

“When you’re low, you’ve got to keep fighting,” Collins said. “You’ve got to stay the course. It’s been a good two weeks, but its far from where we want to be as a program.”

 

By Greg Mroz

1st Half Reaction

1. Indiana is playing right into Northwestern’s 2-3 Zone

A zone defense will force offenses to the perimeter, and Indiana is just fine with that. The Hoosiers went 8 of 12 from three point range in the first half, with Nick Zeisloft hitting 4 of the 5 long range shots he took. The Wildcats may need to switch to man to man in the 2nd half if Indiana continues to work the perimeter for the majority of the shot clock until they find an open shot. The bottom line is that the Hoosiers are proving why they are the best perimeter team in the conference. Sometimes no defense is good enough to guard against that.

2. Vic Law has arrived

The freshman proved in the first half that Saturday’s game against Penn State was no fluke.  Law went 4 of 6 from the field with 2 three pointers to finish the half with 11 points. He is all over the floor, hustling to every ball, and more importantly getting open shots.

3. Alex Olah is winning the interior

Olah is much bigger than Hanner Mosquera-Perea, and he is making it known. Already in double figures with 10 on 4 of 8 shooting, the 7 foot Olah is getting position on 6’9″ Mosquera-Perea. The Hoosiers are a guard reliant team, and Olah along with others can take advantage in the key if they get good position on half court sets.

 

By Greg Mroz

Here are 3 things to think about coming into tonight’s game

1. Indiana’s outside shooting vs Northwestern’s 2-3 zone.

We’ve seen what a zone can do to a team that is dominant in the posts (Iowa) but Chris Collins has yet to face a team that shoots as well from long range as Indiana. On the season, the Hooisers are averaging 79.2 points per game, which ranks 1st in the Big Ten, and they lead the conference in three point field goal percentage at 41.2%. The Hoosiers individually have four regulars shooting over 41 percent from beyond the arch. Expect IU to shoot from the outside early and often.

2. Bryant McIntosh vs Yogi Ferrell

This will be a matchup of two really good point guards, both who run their offenses well, and both who shoot the ball well. Ferrell leads all Hoosiers in points per game at a 16.2 clip, while McIntosh is 2nd on the Wildcats at 12.2 points per game. A battle of freshman versus veteran, this should be fun to watch throughout the night

3. The Return Of Hanner Mosquera-Perea

Alex Olah is going to have his hands full with the junior from, Columbia. An injured knee kept him out for seven games before IU’s game against Purdue on Thursday. His numbers aren’t stellar (7 points per game, 4.4 rebounds per game), but he’s an impact post player on a team that is guard heavy.

By: Lyndsey Armacost // NNN Sports

There were high hopes for freshman Vic Law coming into his freshman campaign and, after his performance in Saturday’s win against Penn State, now we know why.

Vic Law came off the bench for the second straight game and posted his first double-double of the season. With 17 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 steals, he was the game’s difference maker. “I just think I’m starting to get used to college basketball now so everything is getting a little easier. My mindset has changed, I think, greatly since the beginning of the season to now. I’m starting to mature a little bit more. I’m taking things a lot more seriously,” said Law. Vic Law played 31 minutes in the contest, the most he has played since November 22nd when they played Elon.

The Nittany Lions got off to a hot start, making 4 of their first 5 three pointers, but other than that the Wildcat’s zone defense was able to shut them down in the first half. “I give our guys a lot of credit, I even give myself a lot of credit because even after they hit their first four threes, it was testing my patience with sticking with the zone. We stayed the course with it and our defense was fantastic,” said Coach Collins.

“If we’re going to rely on our 3-point shooting, it’s going to be a long day for us,” said Coach Chambers. The Nittany Lions had 27 3-point attempts and, of the 8 that they made, 5 came in the first 12 minutes of the game. The Cats’ zone defense forced Penn State to take those low percentage shots because the zone allowed Olah to stay in the paint.

Penn State’s D.J. Newbill has averaged 21.1 points per game this season but the Cats were able to hold him to just 3 off of 1 for 6 shooting, 1 for 5 from 3-point range. Coach Collins said, “Our guys did a really good job of keeping awareness where Newbill was at all times. Forget that he only hit one basket, we were able to not even let him get looks and that’s the best way. Thorpe and Garner hit a few early but we were fine with those guys trying to be the playmakers if we could keep Newbill at bay.”

This was the Wildcats’ third straight win and Collins attributed that to a new found focus and maturity in all of the players, especially Law. He also mentioned that, being one game under .500, he doesn’t think that the postseason is out of the question if they can finish the season strong.

The first half at Welsh-Ryan Arena was all about defense for Northwestern. The Wildcats currently lead the Nittany Lions 28 to 20 with 15 of Penn State’s points coming off of three pointers.  After jumping out to an early lead of 12-6, Penn State could not penetrate the Cats’ interior defense. They settled for contested three pointers and finished the half with only 2 baskets in the paint.

Vic Law had a huge impact on the first half both offensively and defensively. While he did add a steal and a deflection, more importantly he led the Cats’ in scoring with 9 points off of 4 for 5 shooting. This is Law’s second straight game coming off the bench and it seems to be working.

They key for the Wildcats in the second half will be to continue shutting down driving and passing lanes on the defensive end. If Penn State has to continue shooting low-percentage shots around the arc because they can’t penetrate, the Cats can keep, or even extend, their lead.  The Cats’ took good shots in the first half but Olah and Demps need to do a better job finishing under the basket if they are going to be able to hold off Penn State for twenty more minutes.