Feb. 20, 2000
EVANSTON, Ill. - The Northwestern University women's basketball team gave sixth-ranked Penn State all it could handle for a little more than a half Sunday afternoon at Welsh-Ryan Arena, but the Nittany Lions had too many weapons down the stretch and pulled away for a 66-34 victory.
Unlike the first meeting between these two teams -- when PSU (22-3, 13-1 Big Ten) blew it open early and coasted to a 65-point victory -- Northwestern (6-19, 3-12 Big Ten) hung around and kept things interesting for the Wildcat faithful. The game started slowly, as Penn State held just a one-point lead at 5-4 through nine minutes before going on a 9-2 run over a two-minute stretch to make it 14-6. That lead extended to as much as 10 and got as low as six before PSU scored the last six points of the half to take a 29-17 lead into the locker room.
NU started the second half on fire, scoring the first seven points of the stanza to make it 29-24. A Leslie Shepherd trey for Penn State was answered by a jumper from Dana Leonard, and with 17:56 left the score was 32-26 in favor of the Nittany Lions.
At that point PSU put on the defensive clamps. For nearly eight minutes the Nittany Lions shut the Wildcats out while scoring 14 straight points, then they answered a Tami Sears jumper by reeling off another nine straight points to open up a 55-28 advantage and cruise to victory.
Sears led all scorers on the day with 16 points, and also snared seven rebounds. Leslie Schock, one of three seniors playing her final home game, had eight points. For Penn State, Andrea Garner collected a double-double with 15 points and 11 boards, and also added four assists and four steals. Maren Walseth added 11 points and Ashley Luke scored 10 for the Nittany Lions.
Northwestern will be back in action next Sunday, closing out the regular season with Michigan in Ann Arbor.