Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Kentucky
Northwestern Falls Short of Kentucky, 70-63
12/1/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 1, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. -- After one of the most lopsided defeats in NU history last Saturday, Northwestern returned home to outshoot and outrebound Kentucky, but in the end a furious NU rally Wednesday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena fell short, 70-63.
Trailing by 13 points at the half, Northwestern proceeded to knock down 16 of its 31 second half shots (51.6 percent) while holding Kentucky to 11 of 28 shooting from the floor.
"I'm very proud of our team," NU head coach Beth Combs said. "We had opportunities. We outrebounded them and had more shots, but just did not put the ball in the bucket."
With 6:57 remaining, junior Ifeoma Okonkwo (Spring, Texas/Klein Oak), took advantage of a defensive mismatch to drive the baseline and lay it in to cut Kentucky's advantage to seven. Kentucky would answer, but another layup by senior Samantha McComb (Farmington Hills, Mich./North Farmington) keep the deficit at seven with 5:13 to go.
Okonkwo finished with a game-high 16 points on 8-12 shooting while McComb poured in a season-high 12 points for NU.
UK would eke itself out to a 12-point lead over the final few minutes before a McComb 3-ball cut the lead to seven again with 26 seconds to go, but Northwestern was unable to complete the comeback.
Northwestern outrebounded the SEC 'Cats 42-31, including 26-20 on the offensive glass.
"We took a baby step forward today on the offensive boards," Combs said. "Now we have to take the next step and finish some shots."
With shooting nearly dead even (NU, 45.2-44.6 percent) it was Kentucky's eight 3-pointers to NU's two and UK's 12-18 shooting from the line to Northwestern's 5-9 which made the difference.
Senior Sarah Kwasinski (Chicago, Ill./Fenwick) scored 14 points for NU while freshmen Melissa Miller (Bloomington, Minn./The Breck School) and Kelly Rae Finley (Edina, Minn./The Breck School) led Northwestern with seven rebounds each.
Northwestern returns to action this weekend hosting Houston and Virginia in the Mildred and Roger L. White Invitational at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
