ST. PAUL – The University of Northwestern had a rather dismal shooting night against St. Catherine University on Wednesday night en route to a 68-60 loss to the Wildcats in nonconference action. Northwestern made just over 30 percent of its attempts in the game while making eight of 33 three-point shots despite having three players finish in double figures.

Northwestern never led at any point throughout the 40-minute contest, and put itself behind the eight ball early on when the Wildcats scored the game's first eight points and owned a double-digit lead before five minutes had ticked off the clock. While the Eagles struggled to make a basket, St. Kate's was finding success under the hoop as LaShay Holt and Meg Clark's offensive production saw the home team up 15-3. UNW's Tiffany Stubbs (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) and Jacki Smith (Shoreview, Minn./Concordia Academy) put together an Eagles' run, cutting the 12 point deficit to five over the course of a four-minute stretch. Northwestern continued to chop away at the buffer, minimizing the Wildcat lead down to a mere point  at 19-18 after a made jumper by Chanel Madson (Westbrook, Minn./Westbrook-Walnut Grove) and a Regan Cooper (Pella, Iowa/Osseo) free throw. St. Catherine was able to give itself some breathing room as Mary Neumann answered Cooper's charity stripe make with a three-pointer before adding another long distance shot to pad the Wildcats' lead at eight with 1:47 to play in the half. Stubbs' free throws at the 18-second mark were the only points scored in the rest of the period, leaving Northwestern with a 28-22 uphill battle at halftime.

Much like the start of the first half, St. Kate's came out of the break with fire, using a fast break layup and a Clark trey to lead by double digits again, this time at 37-24 with 16:10 remaining. The Wildcat lead maxed out at 16 points several times in the middle of the second period before six consecutive points from Madson with under a minute to go left the final difference at eight with St. Catherine winning 68-60.

Of Northwestern's 19 made baskets on the night, 15 came from three players – Stubbs, Madson, and Jacki Smith (Shoreview, Minn./Concordia Academy). Smith was the lone Eagle to make better than 50 percent of her attempts in a 6-11 shooting performance that yielded 12 points. Stubbs' 16 points was a game high for the Eagles as the sophomore made four three-point baskets.

Northwestern out-rebounded St. Kate's by a wide margin, 53-35, but 24 turnovers – and the Wildcats scoring 23 points off of those mistakes – added to UNW's shooting woes.  Cooper grabbed 16 of the Eagles' 53 boards, six of which came on the offensive end.

After playing just one game last week, Northwestern, now 4-4 overall, will play its third contest of this week on Saturday at 2 p.m., when the Norse from Luther College will host the Eagles in Decorah, Iowa.