Was at Northwestern's Ericksen Center in Roseville on this Saturday evening after a VERY good meal at my favorite Mexican Restaurant, Don Pablos; to take in this interesting MIAC-UMAC clash between visiting Augsburg and host Northwestern. Augsburg needed to get it going again after having their jets cooled in consecutive losses to GAC and St. Olaf and, at least on paper anyway, this looked like a good way to do it.
After a sweet duet by Northwestern's Chanel Madson and Mollie Sir of the National Anthem, Northwestern appeared ready to duke it out with the Auggies as Madson drained a "3" from the left wing at the 19:48 mark for a quick 3-0 Eagle lead and duet partner Sir did likewise at the 16:40 mark as Northwestern held an 8-4 lead. However, Augsburg's powerful junior Brittany Zins enabled the Auggies to knot things at 8-all with two inside shots at the 15:27 and 15:04 marks. Sophomore Kendra Ware nailed a "3" from the right wing at the 14:26 mark but Sir answered right back with another "3" at the 13:01 mark to knot things at 11 apiece.
At that point, anyway, it looked as if Northwestern was going to be right in the thick of things for the duration. But the visiting Auggies had other ideas as they decided to rip off a decisive 13-0 run over a 4-minute stretch that would give them the cushion they needed. Freshman Abbey Luger nailed a "3" at the 12:41 mark to start the assault. A stifling Augsburg defense resulted in a plethora of Northwestern turnovers that led to two easy transition buckets by the Auggies. At the 10:32 mark, junior Brittany Dyshaw made a beautiful move along the baseline and finished inside and then senior guard Lexi Thompson then was able to finish off the run with two charity stripe shots. Sophomore Jessica Fife finally got the Eagles out of their funk when she scored off the glass at the 7:28 mark but a "3" by junior Katie Ahlstrom gave Augsburg a commanding 29-16 lead by the 6:36 mark. Another "3" by Madson as the shot clock expired at the 5:22 mark cut into the Auggie lead a bit but not enough to make a difference. Perhaps even more disconcerting for Northwestern was the fact that senior leader Kristin Sczublewski was totally held in check by the Auggies defensive schemes; staying scoreless for the entire first half that enabled Augsburg to take a 37-21 lead into the locker room at halftime.
But as young an inexperienced as this Eagle team is, they do not know the meaning of the word quit as they came out in a spirited attempt to try and claw their way back into this game in the second half. Sir knocked down a "3" from the right wing at the 19:43 mark that at least temporarily lit a fire for the home team. But they could not afford to simply trade baskets with the Auggies, either. Senior Nikki Borkhuis scored inside at the 18:51 mark and connected with a short jumper at the 17:02 mark for a 41-26 advantage. Still, Northwestern did their best to try and keep scratching and clawing. A lay-up by promising freshman Kasie Shoberg and yet another three Ms. Sir at the 14:17 mark cut the Auggie lead to a more manageable ten-point deficit but they simply did not have the firepower to bring it all the way back. Sczublewski was still conspicuously silent in this game until the 11:55 mark when she finally nailed two charity stripe shots. Sczublewski did nail a "3" at the 9:15 mark that did get the Eagles to withing six but that would be as close as Northwestern could get. Lay-ups by both Zins and Thompson would enable the Auggies to build up the cushion again and although by Sir and Madson tried to go bombs away from behind the arc in a vain effort to get it close again, Augsburg would hold off the host team to claim a tough 61-51 win.
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