Women’s Hoops Final: Slipped through NU’s fingers
By Philip Rossman-Reich
Marquette had nearly completed a 14-point halftime comeback. Down by two, the Golden Eagles double teamed sophomore center Amy Jaeschke. Jaeschke skipped it to 3-point specialist Erin Dickerson wide open for a 3-pointer.
The ball squirted through her hands.
Marquette took advantage of the opportunity. Krystal Ellis tied the game at 54 with a pull up jumper along the baseline. Sophomore guard Meshia Reed missed a 3-pointer and fouled Ellis going for the rebound. Ellis completed the comeback with a free throw with 14 seconds left as Marquette came from behind for a 55-54 win at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Tuesday.
The Wildcats could not create any offense on their final possession and Dickerson made a 3-pointer after the buzzer sounded, sealing NU’s defeat.
“That’s just something as a team we need to work on,” sophomore center Amy Jaeschke said. “We’ll do really good for 30 minutes and for 10 minutes, we’ll just kind of not play the way that we should be. I think that it’s a lot of leadership that we need on the court when teams are making runs to step up and tell them and get the team together and bring the energy back up.”
Jaeschke recorded a double double with 10 points and 10 boards, but took only five shots in the game. Junior forward Kristin Cartwright led the team with 12 and freshman Brittany Orban and Reed added 10 each.
NU dominated the first half and took a 14-point lead to the locker room, forcing 14 turnovers and allowing only 28 percent shooting.
The second half was a complete flip. The Cats turned the ball over 10 times in the second half and hit only five of their 19 shots as the Golden Eagles gradually chipped away at the lead.
“At halftime we knew this happened before. We didn’t want it to happen again,” Cartwright said. “They were pressuring a lot in the second half and we didn’t handle it very well. When they started to make a run, we didn’t stop it. We had a hard time stopping runs and capitalizing on our runs.”
NU held a double digit lead with about 11 minutes left as the Golden Eagles inched their way back into the game. Coach Joe McKeown said the team struggled to stop the ball off the dribble as the game wore on. That was most evident in the play of Ellis.
She entered the game averaging 16.0 points per game and scored 30 in NU’s 65-63 win at Marquette last year. Ellis had only five points on one-of-five shooting in the first half. She finished with 18, including the three clinching points for the Golden Eagles.
For the Cats it was another struggle in learning how to finish games. After losing leads in previous losses, McKeown said the team still needs to learn how to execute in tight situations.
“We missed a shot and fouled them with the game tied, we can’t do that. We’ve got to be better at the end of the game,” McKeown said. “For us, it’s a learning experience. We have two freshmen on the floor. Kristin Cartwright didn’t play last year. Amy is only a sophomore. Meisha is a sophomore. We’ve got to skip a grade basically to finish these games off.”
prossmanreich@u.northwestern.edu
