MENOMONIE, Wis. – Coming off of a heartbreaking one-point loss on Saturday, things unfortunately did not get any easier for the University of Northwestern Women's Basketball team. Tuesday night, the Eagles traveled to take on the University of Wisconsin-Stout, who broke into the D3Hoops Top-25 Rankings this week at #24. Despite a strong closing effort in the fourth quarter and good shooting numbers, Northwestern fell by a 72-48 score.
Grace Landvik (Roseville, Minn./Concordia Academy), who averaged 16 points per game in last weekend's back-to-back, got the scoring started for UNW on a layup that tied the game at two, early on. Unfortunately, points were hard to come by for the Eagles in the first quarter. Stout rattled off the next 15 points before
Taylor Schuck (Maple Grove, Minn./Heritage Christian Academy) and
Allison Terry (Blaine, Minn./Blaine) made free throws to trim the lead to 12. Terry picked off a Blue Devils pass and went coast-to-coast for an easy layup with 1:04 left and Landvik made a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to make it a 23-9 UW-Stout lead after the first quarter.
Head Coach
Aaron Kahl made a gamble to put
Lexi Hagen (Jordan, Minn./Jordan) (who committed two first quarter fouls) back in to start the second, and it paid off immediately. The Eagles' leading scorer made a baseline jumper and a layup on back-to-back possessions, then buried a three-pointer two minutes later to pull UNW within 11. Northwestern continued to hang around for most of the remainder of the quarter thanks to a pair of
River Landers (Grand Meadow, Minn./Grand Meadow) baskets, but UW-Stout went on a 7-0 run to push the lead to 20. Terry made two free throws in the final minute to bring the halftime score to 40-22 in favor of the home team. The second quarter was much more competitive, finishing 17-13 in favor of the Blue Devils.
After finishing the first half with 7 points (all in the second quarter) on 75% shooting, Hagen continued to shoot efficiently in the second half, drilling a deep three for Northwestern's first points out of the intermission. Landvik and Terry each made three-pointers in the quarter as well, and for the third consecutive period, the Eagles scored the final points of the quarter at the foul line. This time it was Landers swishing both shots to make it 55-35, Stout.
Ella Falk (Jamestown, N.D./Jamestown) opened the fourth quarter with a successful jump shot, but Northwestern's offense went quiet until the final five minutes of play. Those final five minutes are when UNW played its best ball of the night, going on an 11-0 run to finish the game strong. Landvik,
Jasmine Sondrol (Grand Forks, N.D./Red River),
Livvy Grosz (New Brighton, Minn./St. Anthony), Falk and
Annika Dykstra (New Brighton, Minn./Avail Academy) all made free throws in that run, and Grosz made a nifty floater off an assist from Falk.
Bethany Lunke (Lakeville, Minn./United Christian Academy) made a huge block in the final minute that led to a
Lani Schoper (Madison Lake, Minn./Mankato West) layup off a feed from
Lexi Garcia (Colorado Springs, Colo./Vanguard).
Despite the margin of defeat, Northwestern actually shot the ball well in Johnson Fieldhouse. The Eagles made 40% of their three-point attempts and 81.8% of their free throws, both of which were better than their opponents. Where the Blue Devils were able to edge UNW out were in the rebounding and turnover categories. Those led to Stout attempting 60 field goals compared to Northwestern's 39.
Individually, Hagen once again led the way for UNW. She was the only leading scorer in purple with 10 points to go along with four rebounds. Terry and Landvik chipped in with nine and eight points, respectively, while Landers added six. Falk tied Hagen for the team lead in rebounds with four while adding two assists. Schuck dished out two assists as well.
Northwestern will be back home on Saturday, December 16th to take on another WIAC opponent--Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Tip-off between the Eagles and Blugolds will be at 1:00 PM.
