St. Scholastica vs Northwestern 12-14-19

After leaving St. Kate's Butler Center, I hurried over to the north side of town to Ericksen Center on the campus of the University of Northwestern for the game between visiting St. Scholastica and host Northwestern.  I got settled into Ericksen Center at the 5:05 mark of the first period with St. Scholastica holding an 8-6 advantage.

Northwestern would manage to grab the upper hand in this ballgame at the midway point of this opening period as junior reserve guard Courtney Schmidt would knock down two free throws after getting fouled at the 5:01 mark and two more by sophomore point guard Kelsea Lund with 4;23 left had the Eagles up 10-8.  That lead would expand to four at 12-8 when freshman reserve forward Hailey Paup maneuvered into the paint for a score with 3:52 left and suddenly things were looking good for the home team.  St. Scholastica, however, came right back in the form of two three-point bombs by sophomore forward Emma Schmidt to retake the lead.  The Alexandria native drained her first one from the left corner with 3:37 left and buried the second one from the left top area with 3:05 left.  The Saints, however, were unable to hold onto this lead for long as Northwestern came right back to take the lead back.  One Courtney Schmidt freebie with 2:21 left and two scores by by junior forward Miranda Crenshaw - a score in the paint with 1:55 left and an offensive rebound for a putback with 1:24 left - now had the Eagles back up by three at 17-14.  But St. Scholastica would get the best of this cat-and-mouse game going on in this first period thanks to junior guard Kaylee Kennedy as she would get a score in the paint with 1:0 left and would also connect with a lay-up with :38.6 left that also drew a foul and Kennedy's ensuing "and one" put the Saints back up by a 19-17 count going into the second period.

St. Scholastica was able to consolidate a bit on the small lead they had once the second period got underway as a "3" from the left corner by sophomore guard Karli Skog at the 7:27 mark got the Saints lead to four at 22-18 but the Eagles craftily came back and snared the advantage away.  Lund connected with a lay-up at the 6:45 mark and Courtney Schmidt was able to snare an offensive rebound for a putback at the 5:54 mark to get this game tied at 22 a piece.  Junior guard Jordan Sauve connected on a short, turnaround jumper in the lane with 2:01 left to push Northwestern back out in front 24-23 and an offensive rebound and putback by Crenshaw with 1:23 left allowed the Eagles to cling to that one-point edge up 26-25.  St. Scholastica would come right back, however, as junior reserve forward Lizzie Altendorf connected with a lay-up in transition with 1:02 left to put the Saints back out in front 27-26 and one free throw by Altendorf with :18.7 left increased the St. Scholastica lead to two at 28-26.  The Eagles were able to reduce the deficit to a scant point when Lund was able to get one free throw to go down with just :02.7 left and, considering how this game was very, very close from the outset, presumably Northwestern Head Coach Aaron Kahl and his staff had to feel reasonably good about things going into the locker room at the half down only by one.  A check of the first half box score shows that St. Scholastica shot reasonably well thus far; going 7-14 from FG range for 50% and 4-7 from downtown for 57.14%.  Northwestern was 6-14 from FG range for 42.86% but three-point shooting was another story as the Eagles were 0-5 from behind the arc and for a team that does have some good three-point shooters, this was going to have to improve if Northwestern was going to protect its home court on this day.

It's uncertain what St. Scholastica Head Coach Stacy Deadrick might have told her squad during the halftime break but whatever transpired certainly had a positive effect on this Saints squad as they came out in the third period with both barrels blazing.  Kennedy would get things going with her short running jumper from the right side at the 9:39 mark and a Kennedy jumper from the left elbow area at the 8:41 mark upped St. Scholastica's lead to five at 32-27.  Despite Kennedy picking up her third foul on this day at the 7:39 mark, the Saints did not step off the accelerator.  Two scores by Skog - a lay-up at the 7:21 mark and a short jumper from the left side at the 6:38 mark - now had St. Scholastica up by seven at 36-29 and the Eagles looked to be in a quite a fix.  Northwestern looked like they had things under control again as sophomore forward Megan Roberts banged home a "3" from the right corner with 4:23 left and then Lund would drain a "3" from the right wing area with 4:03 mark that brought the Eagles back to within a single possession down 38-35 and presumably right back in the thick of things.  It was here, however, where things quickly fell apart for Kahl's squad as St. Scholastica went on a 16-3 tear to close out this third period.  A Kennedy score in the paint with 3:51 left started this game-changing run and a "3" from the right wing area by senior guard Alison Huber with 3;23 left suddenly had the Saints up by eight at 43-35.  Another Kennedy score in the paint with 2:40 left now expanded the lead to double-digits at 45-35 and then Alison Huber unleashed a dagger "3" from that same right wing area with 2:07 left to get the lead to 48-36.  Altendorf would connect with a lay-up with 1:31 left and two Kennedy free throws with 1:14 left now had the lead at fourteen at 52-36.  Two Skog freebies with just :02.3 left in this game-changing third period gave St. Scholastica it's biggest lead thus far at 54-38 and it definitely seemed that the Eagles looked all but buried by this point.

But this Northwestern team astonished everyone inside Ericksen Center on this late Saturday afternoon by embarking on a 15-3 run in the opening minutes of the fourth period to get right back into this game.  Senior forward Rio Landers got a score in the paint at the 9:39 mark to get this run sparked and an offensive rebound and putback by Roberts of her own miss at the 9:09 mark had the deficit down to twelve points at 54-42.  At the 8:16 mark, Roberts would strike again, this time from behind the arc from the right corner pocket for her second trey of this ballgame that now had the Eagles back within single-digit range down 54-45 and suddenly a ton of momentum on their side to boot.  That notion was reinforced when the diminutive Lund made a hard drive for a finish and drew a foul in the process and sank the obligatory free throw to cut the deficit to six points at 54-48.  At the 7:05 mark, Lund; the Madison native and former Lac qui Parle Valley standout, banged home a "3" from the left top area to keep Northwestern in that six-point range down 57-51 and when Crenshaw muscled into the paint for a score a bit later at the 6:20 mark to reduce the deficit down to four at 57-53, it certainly seemed that the Eagles were right back in the thick of things.  Curiously, however, all the energy that Northwestern seemed to have suddenly hit a brick wall and the Saints recovered to take control of this one for good.  One Altendorf free throw at the 6:05 mark coupled with an Alison Huber lay-up at the 5:52 mark pushed the lead back to seven at 60-53 and then freshman reserve guard Amelia Zmuda drained a back-breaking "3" from the left wing area with 4:38 left to increase St. Scholastica's safety net to ten points at 65-55.  Then it was Emily Schmidt doing the same thing as she uncorked a three-point bomb from the top of the key with 2:51 left to make it 68-55.  The Eagles would make one last desperation push to cut into this sizable deficit as two Lund freebies with 2:42 left and a short, turnaround jumper in the lane by Landers with 2:20 left brought Northwestern back into single-digit range again down 68-59.  Landers would add a lay-up with 1:48 left and Sauve was able to snare a steal and dash the other way for a lay-up with 1:31 left to reduce the deficit to seven at 70-63.  Kahl would subsequently call a timeout to set up strategy for the home stretch but this last gap by the Eagles faltered.  St. Scholastica would close this game out.  Skog would haul in a baseball pass over the pressure defense the Eagles were employing and connect with a lay-up in transition with 1:27 left and two Kennedy free throws with 1:07 left got the Saints lead back to double-digits at 74-63.  Insurance free throws by both Alison Huber and Skog with :51.6 and :42.3 left, respectively, got the lead to thirteen at 78-65 and two more by Kennedy with :22.3 left allowed St. Scholastica to make an enjoyable trip back up to the Twin Ports with a big 80-67 road win. 

When I was able to catch up with Northwestern's Kahl afterward, I had to bring up the crucial 16-3 third period run that the Saints had and although his squad made a nice run in that fourth period to get back to within striking distance, they seemed to run out of gas at the worst possible time.  Kahl was in agreement, saying that, for whatever reason, his squad didn't seem to have that energy today or the sense of urgency that was needed.  Perhaps with finals coming up the following week may have had something to do with that but the fact that the Eagles were riding a three-game win streak coming into this game, it was a little surprising that that didn't carry over on this day.  St. Scholastica's Deadrick on the other hand was beaming after this win and was very proud of her squad for playing up to their potential today.  True, the Saints are only 3-7 after this win in - what so far anyway - is proving to be a difficult season but a big win on the road like this going into the holiday break can be a huge shot of confidence in the arm for this squad.  A check of the box score shows that while the Eagles commanded the glass on this day by a 38-27 count, not a lot else went right for them as Northwestern was guilty of a whopping 26 turnovers on this day and that figure alone will cost you big-time in most games plus the fact that the Saints got 24 points off of those turnovers as well.  The Eagles also shot only 22-57 from FG range for 38.6% and finished an icy 4-19 from downtown for only 21.1%.  The only other stat encouraging to Kahl and his staff was that Northwestern did have an advantage in points in the paint by a 36-18 count but that was somewhat negated by the fact that St. Scholastica had a sizable 24-5 advantage in fast break points.  Another encouraging trend for Deadrick and her staff on this day was that the Saints had an incredibly balanced scoring attack with four players in double figures scoring-wise on this day.  Kennedy's 21 points led all scorers and Emma Schmidt poured in 17 points as well.  Alison Huber had 14 points and Skog wasn't far behind as she finished with 13 points.  Northwestern leaned heavily on Lund on this day as she led the way for the Eagles with 20 points in the losing effort while Crenshaw tallied 12 points.