SPORTS/WBBALL

Monday, January 31, 2022

@DailyNU_Sports

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Northwestern falls to No. 23 Iowa in overtime thriller

Angeli Mittal/Daily Senior Staffer

By MARYKATE ANDERSON the daily northwestern @mkeileen

In the middle of a rough patch in its season, Northwestern came into Friday’s matchup against Iowa looking to get back to business.

Despite great play from the Wildcats (11-7, 3-5 Big Ten) on all accounts, their three-game losing streak became four. The Wildcats could not close out their second upset over the No. 23 Hawkeyes (14-4, 8-1), falling 72-67 in overtime to Caitlin Clark and company. Last year, NU took down then-No. 22 Iowa on Jan. 6 in Iowa City and swept the team.

The Cats showed a unique confidence that persisted from the first whistle to the last buzzer. Senior guard Veronica Burton finished with 19 points, junior guard Laya Hartman with a career-high 14 and freshman guard Melannie Daley with an admirable 13.

Senior forward Courtney Shaw had an awe-inspiring performance, with 12 rebounds — seven on the offensive end — and two blocks, and she tied her career high with five steals. NU forced 25 Iowa turnovers and only had 12 of their own.

Efforts which would normally be a recipe for a signature NU win were ultimately a mere silver lining in a loss that stung more than usual.

“Part of me feels like we deserved to win the game,” coach Joe McKeown said. “But you’ve gotta finish, whether that’s in the extra five minutes or if you have a chance to build on that lead.”

The Cats held a 14-point lead over Iowa halfway through the third quarter but slowly let it slip away until, with the help of a clutch late jumper from Daley and a missed shot from Clark, the two teams ended regulation tied 61-61.

But that ending is not without an asterisk. Clark’s missed jumper gave way to a defensive rebound by freshman guard Jillian Brown. Brown drove the ball down the court and, in what seemed like just enough time, passed it in transition to Hartman for the game-winning layup.

The crowd roared and the NU bench leapt up in celebration, but the moment was fleeting. The game clock had inadvertently stopped at 3.9 seconds after Brown’s rebound and the referees determined that Hartman’s shot would not have gone off in time and sent the game into overtime.

That confusion in the last 3.9 seconds of regulation threw off any good energy the Cats had going. NU went 2-for-8 from the field in overtime, Burton missed three of her four free throw attempts, and the Cats dropped their fourth straight contest.

“As much as it does sting, we realize that we’d much rather lose a game like this than a game where we’re not going as hard as we can,” Burton said.

The Cats’ trademark “Blizzard” defense seemed to confuse Iowa and limited their scoring yet again. NU held the Hawkeyes, who sat atop the Big Ten with 84.7 points per game, to a season-low 61 points in regulation. Their previous low in Big Ten play came against the Cats on Jan. 6.

NU has continuously struggled against recent opponents, but the team looks to continue its momentum at Purdue on Thursday.

“If we play like that, we’ll beat the majority of the teams in the Big Ten,” Burton said. “That’s really the message at the end of the day. Be consistent with this type of effort, this type of energy, and just move forward.”

marykateanderson2023@u.northwestern.edu

WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY

Cats light up the track in snowy Boston

By KATE WALTER the daily northwestern @katewalter03

Snowed in and psyched up, Northwestern is feeling the energy after a successful showing at the John Thomas Terrier Classic at Boston University.

The Wildcats competed in the 3k and the 5k on Friday, with runners clocking some of the fastest times in program history. While the conditions were snowy in Boston this weekend, NU certainly brought the heat on the track.

In a field that boasted top teams and professional runners, freshman Ava Earl placed an impressive 23rd overall in the women’s 3k, with the fifth fastest 3k time ever for the Cats of 9:38. Graduate student Amanda Mosborg finished seventh in the women’s 5k in 16:51, running the seventh fastest time in program history. Both Earl and Mosborg set personal bests with these history-making performances.

Mosborg, who ran Division III at Carleton College during her undergraduate years, is making the most of her time at NU. She is enrolled in a year-long graduate program and finishing her NCAA eligibility, and this was just her third Division I indoor track competition.

“I guess that makes me feel even more lucky for the opportunity because I’m not here for very long,” said Mosborg.

Rounding out the Cats’ performance, Emily Casaclang [cq] and Deepti Choudhury set personal bests in the 3k, finishing in 9:52 and 9:56, respectively.

Graduate student Lotte Van der Pol posted the ninth fastest time in program history in the 5k, crossing the line in 17:04 and finishing 13th overall. Primarily a cross country program, NU views winter and fall track seasons as a chance to build a strong base for the fall.

“We really approach indoor and outdoor track as a way to grow physically and mentally in terms of our confidence,” Coach Jill Miller said.

Running is a unique sport in that each season features competition — from cross country in the fall to indoor track in the winter and outdoor track in the spring, its athletes are constantly in-season.

The Cats methodically approach their training in order to stay both healthy and motivated throughout their lengthy racing calendar. Miller says a big part of this longevity is enjoying the process.

“We make the hard work fun… that’s a really important piece of the puzzle,” said Miller. “Because it is a grind. It’s a lot of miles that you’re running and it can start to be something that feels a little bit mundane, and we do not want that to happen.”

The Cats had to deal with COVID-19 troubles and injuries at the beginning of the season, but despite these challenges, the team was able to put up solid performances at the first two meets of their season. At the Gene Edmonds Invitational in January, Earl took home the 3k victory, and all seven NU runners finished in the top 10 of that event. Later that month at the Michigan Invite, four Cats achieved personal bests in the mile and the 3k .

The Terrier Classic featured more competition compared to their two previous meets held in the Midwest, and Earl said “it was good for (the team) to get in a more competitive field.” The number of personal bests and historic times for the program prove that it was, indeed, good.

The Cats have a few more meets on the calendar for the winter and will then turn their attention to outdoor track season and ultimately the 2022 cross country season.

NU has faced many battles during the indoor track season thus far, but with a strong roster and positive attitude, the team was able to overcome adversity and dominate on the track in snowy Boston. The cold never bothered them anyway. katewalter2025@u.northwestern.edu

MEN’S BASKETBALL Wildcats lose to No. 24 Illinois

By PATRICK ANDRES daily senior staffer @pandres2001

The greater college basketball world may hesitate to call IllinoisNorthwestern — a series in which one team has won 143 of 185 meetings — a “rivalry” in the traditional sense.

But on Saturday afternoon in Evanston, no word seemed more appropriate.

In an electric, bipartisan WelshRyan Arena, the Wildcats (9-10, 2-8) fell 59-56 to the Fighting Illini (15-5, 8-2) before their first sellout home crowd in two years. Star Illinois center Kofi Cockburn led both teams with 22 points, although he had to take 17 shots to get them.

“(Illinois fans are) always gonna have a nice turnout here,” coach Chris Collins said. “It made for just a great atmosphere. I so appreciate it, and I hope our students will keep coming out even though we’ve come up short.”

Cockburn accounted for much of the Fighting Illini’s offensive output as several of their key contributors struggled. Guard Trent Frazier, serenaded on nearly every touch by chants of “airball” after a pair of early misses, made just two of his 10 field goal attempts and turned the ball over three times. Two other starters, guard-forward Jacob Grandison and guard Alfonso Plummer, also combined to make three of their 12 field goal attempts.

Neither team could land a knockout punch until late, although NU led by as many as six points with 8:09 to play. Illinois tied it on two free throws from guard Da’Monte Williams a little over four minutes later, and a Cockburn layup with 2:25 left re-tied it at 53.

The Cats moved the ball well on the ensuing possession, but graduate forward Elyjah Williams was unable to connect on an open three.

“It was a great shot by Elyjah,” senior forward Pete Nance said. “He works on it every day, and everyone has total confidence in him making that shot. I want him to shoot that 10 times out of 10.”

Joanne Haner/The Daily Northwestern

With 1:37 on the clock and the game tied, Cockburn missed a short hook shot. Da’Monte Williams cleaned up his miss and slammed it home to put the Fighting Illini up 55-53, and NU never saw the lead again.

The ending spoiled a nice bounceback performance from Nance, who missed two critical free throws in the Cats’ 72-70 loss to Michigan Wednesday. Nance made eight of his 15 field goal attempts and scored 21 points — the seventh 20-point game of his NU career — to go with five rebounds.

“(The atmosphere) really makes a difference,” Nance said. “The times when you haven’t scored a couple possessions in a row, you see all these people in the stands cheering for you and supporting what you’re trying to do, that really means a lot.”

The game concluded a stretch of four games against top 25 opponents in a five-game span for the Cats; they went 1-4, losing every game, except a blowout against Purdue, by single digits. Despite this, Collins stressed that NU could take numerous positives into the back half of its Big Ten schedule, which begins Tuesday against Rutgers. “If you play Illinois … to a onepossession game, there’s going to be a lot of positives,” Collins said. “But at the end of the day, we didn’t win, and that’s what I’m sick about, because our guys deserve better.” patrickandres2023@u.northwestern. Scan this QR code with your smartphone camera to view an accompanying photo blog of the men’s and women’s basketball games.