Jan. 14, 2003
EVANSTON, Ill. -
Iowa Game Notes in PDF Format
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Date/Time: Thursday, Jan. 16, 2003/7 p.m.
Site: Iowa City, Iowa/University of Iowa
Arena/Capacity: Carver-Hawkeye/15,500
Series: vs. Iowa-Iowa leads 30-12
Radio/TV: WNUR 89.3 FM/none
Internet :www.wnur.org/sports
On the Road Again
NU hits the road for the third time this season in conference play, traveling to neighboring Iowa to take on the Hawkeyes at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. Iowa and NU are both coming off losses with the Hawkeyes falling at No. 9/11 Minnesota (94-65) and the Wildcats losing to No. 17/16 Penn State (79-63) at home. Iowa has lost its last three games against top-25 competition while two of NU's last three defeats were against ranked opponents.
So far this season the road has not played too kindly for NU. In all, the Wildcats are 0-6 when away from Welsh-Ryan, which includes an 0-2 conference mark. On the other side, the Hawkeyes are perfect at home in 2003, boasting a 6-0 record when playing in front of the Iowa faithful. Today is Iowa's Big Ten home opener.
Iowa is led by junior Jennie Lillis and her 14.2 points per game while sophomore April Calhoun is ranked eighth in the conference with 55 assists.
Leading the NU charge is sophomore Sarah Kwasinski who averages 13.8 points per game. The Chicago native also leads the team in rebounds (7.3 rpg) and is tied for the team lead with 22 steals. Senior Natalie Will leads the team with 46 assists and is tied with Kwasinski with 22 steals.
'Cat Nips
* Iowa's Jennie Lillis (14.2)and NU's Sarah Kwasinski (13.8) rank
No. 12 and 13 in the Big Ten scoring statistics.
* Sarah Kwasinski is tied for the lead in blocked shots in confer-
ence action. She currently has eight throw-backs in four games.
Those eight blocks are a team high, along with her seven steals
in Big Ten play.
* NU and Iowa both played Drake, Denver and Penn State this sea-
son. NU lost to all three opponents while the Hawkeyes defeated
Denver (83-49) and Drake (72-52), but lost to PSU (86-52).
* Iowa is averaging 22.2 turnovers per game compared to 16.9 for
Northwestern.
* NU is hitting 30 percent (20-for-66) of its three-point shots in Big
Ten action. That's an improvement over the 28 percent (67-for-
239) for the entire season.
* Iowa is second in the league in offensive rebounding, bringing
down 41.8 caroms per game. NU is last in the league at 34.2
rebounds per game.
* For the second year in a row, NU's 16th game of the season is
against Iowa. Iowa won last year's first meeting, 82-68, at Welsh-
Ryan Arena.
* The last time NU beat Iowa (75-71) was the first round of the
2000 Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis, Ind. It was the first
time in tournament history that a No. 10 seed won its opening-
round game.
* Melissa Culver and Leslie Dolland teamed up with Iowa guard
April Calhoun over the summer on the Big Ten Women's
Basketball Foreign Tour team. The squad went 5-0 traveling
through the Netherlands and Belgium.
* NU freshman Ifeoma Okonkwo has led the team in rebounding
in conference play. The Texas native is averaging 6.3 rebounds
per conference game. She grabbed a career-high 11 boards at
Indiana.
* Wildcat guard Samantha McComb reached 300 points in her
career when she scored 10 points vs. Penn State last Sunday.
* Head coach June Olkowski is 2-4 vs. Iowa since her hiring in
1999. The teams have played at Welsh-Ryan three times, Carver-
Hawkeye twice and once on a neutral floor in her tenure.
* Iowa has scored 981 points in 13 games this season compared to
837 in 15 contests for Northwestern.
* The Hawkeyes average 18.1 assists per game, while the Wildcats
own a 13.5 per game average.
* Sarah Kwasinski, a sophomore, reached 500 career points when
she scored 18 against Morehead State in the first round of the
Denver Classic. She now has 585 all-time points.
* Leslie Dolland was voted team captain.
* Eleven of NU's 14 players hail from different states.
* Three of NU's four coaches have Div. I head coaching experience.
-Olkowski at Arizona, Butler and Northwestern
-Darling at the Air Force Academy
-Grennan at St. Joseph's (Pa.)
* Sue Darling spent two years (1996-97) working for the Seattle
Reign (ABL) as an assistant coach.
* Samantha McComb and Sarah Kwasinski are the only two
Wildcats to start every game this season.
* The eight three-pointers NU hit against Michigan State is a
season high.
* In their Big Ten home opener, the Wildcat defense held Michigan
State to season lows in points (46), field goals made (16), field
goal percentage (.281), free throws made (seven) and free throw
percentage (.500).
* Northwestern has held three of its 15 opponents under
30 percent shooting from the field and nine teams under
40 percent.
* Prior to the win over MSU, NU's last Big Ten regular-sea-
son win was against Minnesota (50-44) on Jan. 20, 2000.