Despite still feeling a bit worn down from my long trip back from the Motherland where I got to watch my UCLA Bruins take back the great city of Los Angeles from our crosstown rival USC, I was over at Macalester's Leonard Center to take in the non-conference clash between UMAC opponent Northwestern and the hosts Scots. I figured that, at the least anyway, this would be an entertaining game and I was not disappointed.
Sophomore guard Chanel Madson got the purple-clad Eagles on the board first with her lay-up at the 18:53 mark and junior sharpshooting guard Mollie Sir helped build the lead to 6-2 with scores at the 16:35 and 15:40 marks. Junior forward Kathryn Medinger knocked down a jumper at the 15:40 mark to pull the Scots to within two points but a "3" junior forward Hannah Holm and another bucket by Madson helped push the Eagle lead to 11-4 by the 14:46 mark as Macalester was having some problems getting untracked early on the first half.
Northwestern was holding a 20-13 lead by the 9:58 mark thanks to junior post/forward Jessica Fife's score inside at the 9:58 mark but the Scots finally began to make a move. Senior point guard Kyanna Jones made a hard drive and finish at the 8:37 mark and after withstanding a "3" by Madson and a rebound and putback by Fife, junior guard Emma Leyden made a sweet steal and lay-up the other way at the 3:49 mark and then sophomore Annie Drabot's score inside helped pull the Scots to within one at 25-24 at the 3:19 mark. Freshman reserve post Abby Purfeerst's two free throws at the 2:52 mark gave Macalester its first lead at 26-25 and Jones' jumper with 1:21 left and another freebie at the 1:04 mark gave the Scots a 30-27 lead although that was whittled down to a scant point when freshman reserve forward Kim Campbell knocked down a jumper with just :03 left on the clock for the Eagles. Still, Macalester seemingly had to be feeling better about itself at the halftime break after the rough go out of the gate.
But Northwestern had other ideas once the second half got underway and they made their decisive move after the second half tip. After Macalester junior post Veronika Jakubovie upped the Scot lead to 32-29 with her score inside at the 17:37 mark, Sir let everyone know her presence as she drilled a "3" from the right corner at the 16:27 mark to tie things at 32-all. The Eagles took the lead back for good at the 15:43 mark when freshman Courtney Cunard knocked down a jumper from the left elbow and then the Eagles proceeded with a 7-0 run over the next three minutes for a 41-33 lead by the 12:57 mark and Sir pushed that lead to double digits with another "3" from the left top with 11:51 left.
Macalester meanwhile had a horrible time from a shooting standpoint given all the opportunites they had and it allowed Northwestern to keep the Scots at bay coming down the home stretch. The Scots did creep back to within six points at the 6:28 mark when Medinger connected with a short jumper and were able to cut it to four when Jakubovie snared a rebound and got a putback with 4:50 left. But after a Fife free throw Sir again strutted her stuff and banged home another "3" from the left corner with 4:11 left that upped the Eagle lead to nine at 52-43. Leyden connected with a short jumper with 3:54 mark and junior guard Taylor Pike's "3" from the left corner once again pulled the Scots to within four at 52-48 but the Eagles were very disciplined with the ball in the last few minutes that forced the Scots to go into foul mode allowing Northwestern to ice this game from the charity stripe and claim a 59-50 victory.
No comments:
Post a Comment