Dec. 5, 2004
Box Score
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Senior Suzanne Morrison (Franklin, Mich./Detroit Country Day) scored a career-high 21 points in Sunday's finale of the Mildred and Roger L. White Invitational at Welsh-Ryan Arena, but it was not enough as Virginia defeated Northwestern, 76-55.
NU concludes the Invitational with an 0-2 record. No. 24 Houston went 2-0 while UVa finished 1-1.
Morrison, who netted a team-high 11 points Friday against the Cougars, was Northwestern's member of the All-Tournament team.
Virginia (5-3) jumped out to an early advantage, eventually building a 31-20 lead with 5:13 to go in the first half. A layup from freshman Melissa Miller (Bloomington, Minn./The Breck School) then sparked an 8-0 Wildcat run capped by a Morrison 3-point play that cut the Cavalier lead to three with 3:32 to play in the period.
"We got better today," NU head coach Beth Combs said. "We did a good job handling their full-court pressure. Suzanne is good enough to make one move and score and she did that today."
After going into the locker room down 10, NU (1-6) came out and immediately cut the lead to six on a pair of buckets from senior Sarah Kwasinksi (Chicago, Ill./Fenwick). Kwasinski finished the game with 10 points and a trio of blocks.
Her 10 points gave her exactly 1,000 for her career. Kwasinski led the Wildcats in scoring as a freshman and sophomore en route to becoming NU's newest member in the 1,000-point club.
Virginia built its lead back up to 14, but the 'Cats again fought back with freshman Sara Stutz (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South) hitting two shots to key a 6-0 NU run to cut the lead to 49-41.
With 6:55 to go, Morrison completed another 3-point play to make the score 60-51, but that is the closest Northwestern would get.
"We played well for about 35 minutes," Combs said. "We just did not score at the end of the game and you can not defeat good teams like Virginia that way."
Miller pulled down a team-high seven rebounds while Morrison added six boards for the Wildcats. Senior Samantha McComb (Farmington Hills, Mich./North Farmington) dished out a team-best four assists.
After a week off for finals, Northwestern returns to action at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Suzanne Morrison, Northwestern
Jocelyn Logan-Friend, Virginia
Brandi Teamer, Virginia
Sancho Lyttle, Houston
Joann Overstreet, Houston
TOURNAMENT MVP: Joann Overstreet, Houston