Jan. 24, 2004
MADISON, Wis. - Northwestern is coming off a stretch of five games in which it faced four teams that were in the top-25 at the time. In the last of those games on Thursday, the Wildcats had No. 20/20 Michigan State on the ropes before falling in overtime, 67-57. The 'Cats had dropped an overtime decision at Indiana (55-58) in the previous game.
NU (7-10, 0-6 Big Ten) is making progress towards overcoming injury and illness problems that have ravaged the team since the December holidays. After entering Big Ten play with a 7-4 record, NU has lost its first six conference match-ups. Missing from the lineup were Samantha McComb, the 'Cats' leading scorer, honorable mention All-Big Ten center Sarah Kwasinski, Kristin Ambrose and Maria McCarthy. Suzanne Morrison is listed as a medical redshirt for 2003-04. Kwasinski is now back in the lineup and producing on the offensive end. She led NU in scoring against MSU for the first time since putting up 23 points against DePaul on December 1. Ambrose is seeing minimal time, McCarthy made her lone field-goal attempt versus MSU, but McComb remains unable to play.
The absence of several of NU's regulars has allowed for its rookie class to make some noise on the court. Alex Mueller, a native of Nordlingen, Germany, is leading the team in league scoring, averaging 10.5 ppg. A.J. Glasauer, who also hails from Germany, led the 'Cats in rebounding (4) and assists (6) against MSU. Breanne Smilie, a high school teammate of Kwasinski, has started the last five games. Smilie scored seven points in the first-half of the MSU game and tied her career-high with five assists.
Wisconsin's last game was a heartbreaking 63-60 home loss at the hands of Michigan. The Badgers' only other home loss in conference play occurred when they took No. 7/8 Penn State down-to-the-wire but fell short, 60-59. UW (7-9, 1-5) got its first Big Ten win under first-year Head Coach Lisa Stone with a 66-57 defeat of Illinois on January 13.
Three Badgers are averaging double-digit points--Ashley Josephson (11.9 ppg), Stephanie Rich (11.3 ppg) and Emily Ashbaugh (10.6 ppg). Rich is dishing out a Big Ten leading 6.44 assists per game. UW's leading rebounder is 6-7 senior Lello Gebisa who is pulling down 6.8 boards per game. Ebba Gebisha, Lello's sister, is averaging 5.8 points per game for the Badgers as a junior.
Northwestern holds a 27-19 lead in the series with Wisconsin. However, UW is currently riding a 10-game win streak in the series.