Jan. 2, 2003
EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern rode a stingy defense and timely shooting to a 52-46 win over Michigan State in Thursday night women's basketball action at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The win marks NU's first regular-season Big Ten victory since Jan. 20, 2000--a span of 43 conference games.
"People have been saying we got the monkey off our backs, but that was more like King Kong," head coach June Olkowski said. "I thought the kids did a great job following our game plan and we defended very well."
Sophomore guard Samantha McComb (Farmington Hills, Mich./North Farmington) paced the 'Cats (6-6, 1-1 Big Ten) with 14 points and four assists while playing all 40 minutes. McComb knocked down seven of eight free throws in the game's final 90 seconds to seal the win.
MSU (6-5, 0-1 Big Ten) shot just 28 percent from the field against a stifling NU zone defense. The 'Cats held the Spartans without a field goal for a 10-minute, 30-second stretch in the second half and forced 11 turnovers in the victory.
Strong bench play helped NU, as the Wildcat reserves outscored MSU's 19-3. Senior forward Natalie Will (Nappanee, Ind./Northwood) led the bench scorers with 10 points and added four rebounds. Junior forward Michelle Zylstra (Huntington Beach Calif./Edison) scored six points on two crucial three-pointers. The first gave NU a 30-28 lead early in the second half, and her second triple gave the 'Cats their biggest lead, 45-35, with less than three minutes to play. As a team, NU made a season-high eight three-pointers.
"We got great contributions from our bench," Olkowski said. "It was really a nice team effort. It was great for us to show that we can win without (sophomore center Sarah) Kwasinski as our leading scorer."
MSU led 21-18 at the intermission, but NU chipped away at the lead until McComb hit a three off a Will feed to give NU a 27-26 lead with 14:34 left. Four minutes later, Zylstra found Kwasinski for a layup to give NU the lead for good. The 'Cats posted an impressive 16 assists on their 17 field goals.
Kwasinski, NU's leading scorer on the season, finished with nine points and six rebounds, and took over fourth place on the career blocks list with four more Thursday night. She now has 76 for her career.
NU takes a brief respite from the Big Ten slate for a final nonconference tilt Saturday, going to DePaul for a 7 p.m. tip.