With 3:54 left, Casey Harter propelled the basketball from the left wing. The ball slipped gracefully from her fingers, aiming to connect with the hoop for a triple the Wildcats so desperately craved, but dropped to the floor just short of the rim, scraping the nylon on its way down.
Harter, jogging back to half court, looked down to her open palms, appearing to puzzle over how her shot mechanics had been so off.
It was these mystical forces inside Welsh-Ryan Arena that seemed to haunt Northwestern
(1-1, 0-0 B1G) in its 91-78 loss to Xavier (2-0, 0-0 Big East) on Thursday night. Though Lily Carmody logged her second 20-point game of the season, the Musketeers responded by tallying their highest point total in a game since December 2018, shooting 62% from the field and an eye-watering 53% from deep.
“I thought that was a really tough team,” head coach Carla Berube said of Xavier. “It was really tough to guard them. Excellent one-on-one players, clearly some really great scorers and shooters.”
Senior Lucile Jerome, junior Meri Kanerva and first-year Kejia Ran led the effort for Xavier, each notching double-digits in the scoring column. The trio of scorers seemed much more confident against Northwestern than Milwaukee a few days prior, despite the ‘Cats 23-15 first-quarter lead and 41-39 advantage at the half.
NU let the game go in the second half. Xavier’s 3-point percentage went from good to great — 42.8% in the first half to 62.8% in the second — and the ‘Cats struggled greatly with stifling that momentum, being outscored by 21 points after the first quarter.
Allowing such a high volume of shots was surprising for the Wildcats, given Berube’s message on Tuesday on fixing defensive miscues. Still, Berube attributed a “little bit of both” luck and defensive breakdown to Xavier’s success.
“When you get as many on-paint touches as they did, they were able to find open players [and] spray that ball,” Berube said. “They got into our house a lot and it created some closeouts.”
One must also mention the fatigue factor. With Xamiya Walton still unavailable, the Wildcats ran a seven-woman rotation with Kat Righeimer and Brooke Golden off the bench. On Thursday, four of Northwestern’s five starters played over 34 minutes. Harter went the full 40 without a second of rest.
On many levels, the ‘Cats are missing Walton.
“It’s hard when there’s only one guard out there,” said Berube. “But Cam [Nelson] is doing a phenomenal job. It’ll be really great when Xamiya comes back, but we’ve got to figure that out.”
Nelson had a superb first half for Northwestern with 11 points, five rebounds and four assists, displaying her high IQ and versatility. Her ability to draw fouls inside the paint helped the Wildcats settle the score and slow the pace when necessary.
Carmody, too, emerged from her foul-trouble-induced mid-game break with a lot of grit. Her 11 points and four rebounds in the fourth quarter alone kept Northwestern from looking stagnant on the court.
In Berube’s eyes, however, two good individual games is not enough.
“We’ve gotta get a great shot at every possession,” Berube said. “It’s certainly an Achilles [heel] for us right now, but things that we’re definitely working on.”
That sentiment of hard work around the clock, even when forced outside of one’s comfort zone, fuels Lexi Blue’s game and is something the team can look to for inspiration.
“If that’s my 3-point shooting, if that’s me getting to the rim, if that’s me rebounding, if that’s me being a leader, if that’s me passing to my teammates, I wanna do all those things,” Blue said. “I really just care about winning, which, this hurts, I hate losing. My game is doing whatever it takes to win.”
Northwestern can wake up Friday knowing that, though fortune has a way of being funny, hard work can make up for an unlucky set of circumstances. The ’Cats have all season to tailor their game to Big Ten competition.
Northwestern takes on 1-1 UIC Sunday. Blue says the only way is for it to go is up.
“I feel like there’s so many places we can grow,” Blue said. “Our ceiling is so high.”
