On Thursday night in Welsh-Ryan Arena, Northwestern (1-1, 0-0 B1G) dropped its first game of the season, suffering a 91-78 defeat to the Xavier Musketeers (2-0, 0-0 Big East).
The ‘Cats turned in a strong offensive performance, shooting 47.2% from the field and 35% from deep. Its high impact transfers led the offensive charge, with 20 points coming from Lily Carmody, 13 points coming from Lexi Blue and 12 points coming from Camdyn Nelson.
However, up against its first high-major opponent of the season,
Northwestern had no defensive solution. Xavier got whatever it wanted all night long on the offensive end, shooting 62% from the field and 53.3% from the perimeter, and posting its highest single-game score since 2018. Its Lucile Jerome and Meri Kanerva, who shot a perfect 5-for-5 from the field, led all scorers in the game with 22 points a piece, while first-year Kejia Ran added 17 points on 7-for-9 shooting.
NU entered the game following up a 64-60 nail-biting victory over Milwaukee. On the opposing sideline, Xavier came into the matchup coming off of a 75-63 season-opening win against Purdue Fort Wayne.
At the jump, the ‘Cats rolled with the same starting lineup it featured on Tuesday: a tandem of Kentucky transfer Blue, Boston College transfer Carmody, senior returner Casey Harter and Syracuse transfers Nelson and Jasmyn Cooper-Derba.
Xavier won the tip and got on the scoreboard first with a driving layup from Ran. From there, the first quarter became a game of runs.
Despite surrendering the game’s opening bucket, it would be the ‘Cats who got out to a hot start, bursting to a 9-2 run off contributions from Nelson, Carmody, Blue and Harter. But the Musketeers weren’t daunted, and immediately bounced back with a 10-2 scoring run of its own, with five points coming from the first-year Ran, to take a 14-11 lead in the ballgame with 5:31 to play in the period.
Then, just as it looked like Xavier had found a wave of momentum, Northwestern tightened the screws on defense and got hot from downtown. Kat Righeimer knocked down a pair of triples and Nelson added a third, while Berube’s squad shut Xavier out from the field for the rest of the first frame. It was a 12-1 Northwestern scoring streak, and it gave the ‘Cats a 23-15 lead through 10 minutes of gametime.
The Musketeers’ field goal drought finally came to an end on their first possession of the second quarter, when second-year Kodee Williams-Sefo found nylon on a three. The early score was an early sign of what turned into a second quarter of dominance for Xavier.
The ‘Cats lost their defensive stronghold on Welsh-Ryan Arena’s northern basket, allowing Xavier to shoot 80% from the field and 66.7% from three in the period. Lucile Jerome, the fourth-year French native, took over offensively for the black jerseys, turning in 10 points in the period alone.
With four minutes to play in the half, the Musketeers had reclaimed a 33-32 lead. However, Northwestern would turn in a strong performance in these final minutes, getting back-to-back and-one buckets from Cooper-Derba and Nelson — who would both make their free throws — and three additional points at the charity stripe from Harter and Nelson.
When the halftime buzzer sounded, Northwestern held a 41-39 advantage. It was a high-flying first half from both offenses, with Xavier shooting 60.9% from the field and 42.9% from the perimeter, while the ‘Cats finished 51.9% from the floor and 41.7% from deep.
Xavier’s Jerome led all players in scoring with 13 points, though the real MVP of the game had been Nelson, who logged an NU-leading 11 points, and led all players on both teams in rebounding and passing, with five rebounds and four assists.
In the early going of the second half, the two teams traded a few buckets before Ran, Xavier’s prized freshman who was picked No. 43 in the WNBA Draft before choosing to play in college, had a sizzling stretch. The 6-foot-0 guard made a driving layup and then drained threes on back-to-back-to-back possessions, quickly giving the Musketeers a six-point lead.
For the rest of the period, Xavier would maintain that margin. After Ran’s scoring, a hoop and the harm from Harter and a tip-in layup by Cooper-Derba would cut the lead to one at 4:51. However, from there, Northwestern continued to struggle finding a sustainable way to stop Xavier’s offense, which poured in two more threes in the back half of the frame, bringing its three-point shooting percentage to 50% on the evening. With 10 minutes to play, the ‘Cats trailed 65-60.
In the fourth quarter, Xavier slowly but surely pulled away from the ‘Cats, giving the reins to the Finnish Kanerva to close out the game. The junior guard scored 13 of the Musketeers’ 26 points in the period, and all but iced the game with she connected upon an-and-one floater with 4:16 to play, giving Xavier its first double-digit lead of the competition.
In the game’s final minutes, Northwestern kept fighting, but wasn’t able to bite into Xavier’s advantage, as the Musketeers made nine free throws down the stretch to stay out in front.
Xavier won 91-78, handing Carla Berube her first loss of her tenure in Evanston. Northwestern fought hard on the offensive end, but was ultimately outscored in the Welsh-Ryan shootout.
Looking to bounce back from the loss, the ‘Cats will get two days of rest before heading downtown to face UIC at 1 p.m. CST. The game will be televised on ESPN Plus.
