By Danny Daly

Just when it looked like Northwestern had its first road victory of the season all wrapped up, Clemson snatched victory from the claws of defeat and prevailed in a 78-75 overtime thriller at Littlejohn Colisseum. It was the third straight game in which the Wildcats blew a lead late in the second half.

Up three points with just five seconds left and junior point guard Jenny Eckhart on the line shooting two, NU (2-6) seemed to have the game won.

But Eckhart, a career 74 percent free-throw shooter, missed both tries. Clemson forward Lele Hardy connected from long range with one second remaining to send the game into overtime. The Cats had a chance to force a second overtime, but senior guard Erin Dickerson’s 3-pointer missed as time expired.

The game was incredibly close from start to finish, as neither team was able to build a lead of more than four points.

NU came up short despite a big night from sophomore center Amy Jaeschke. After struggling to get involved in Tuesday’s loss to Marquette, Jaeschke bounced back with a career-high 34 points, including making 12-of-13 at the charity stripe. She also had 11 rebounds, giving Jaeschke her sixth double-double of the young season.

Her cousin, senior forward Ellen Jaeschke, came off the bench and contributed 11 points, her highest scoring output so far. It was the most significant playing time Ellen Jaeschke had seen this season after starting all but three contests last winter. Freshman Brittany Orban also scored 11 points and added six boards.

Even though the Cats played both the six-foot-five Amy and six-foot-two Ellen Jaeschke at times, the Tigers pulled down 20 offensive rebounds — which made up more than half of Clemson’s 39 total rebounds. This created numerous second-chance opportunities for the Tigers and led to them taking 23 more shots than the Cats.

Another important factor was turnovers. NU committed 25 miscues. It was their fifth game this season with at least 18. The Tigers scored 19 points off of those turnovers.

NU is off for exams until it plays at DePaul on Dec. 14.

danieldaly2012@u.northwestern.edu