Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Illinois
Illinois Escapes Northwestern, 73-65
1/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2005
NU Head Coach Beth Combs' Postgame Quotes in PDF Format
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EVANSTON, Ill. -- For the third time this season, four Wildcats scored in double-figures, and sophomore A.J. Glasauer (Freiburg, Germany/Theodor-Heuss-Gymansium) set a career high with 10 assists, but Illinois used a late run Sunday afternoon to escape Welsh-Ryan Arena with a 73-65 victory.
Glasauer's 10 assists are the most by any Big Ten player in a conference game so far this season and tie Penn State's Jess Strom for the highest single-game total in all games by a conference player this year.
Down by 13 points at the half, Northwestern went on a 14-2 run midway through the second half to take a one-point lead with 10:47 to play.
Senior Sarah Kwasinski (Chicago, Ill./Fenwick) started the spurt with a pair of free throws at the 14:08 mark. Freshman Sara Stutz (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South) followed with a baseline jumper and senior Samantha McComb (Farmington Hills, Mich./North Farmington) buried a 3-ball to cut the Illini advantage to four.
Following a pair of Illinois (10-3, 2-1 Big Ten) free throws, junior Ifeoma Okonkwo (Spring, Texas/Klein Oak) hit on a layup and was thrown to the ground afterwards by an Illini player. McComb calmly hit both technical free throws before Okonkwo hit a 3-pointer from the corner to give NU a 43-42 lead with 10:47 remaining.
"I am proud of our effort today," NU Head Coach Beth Combs said. "We are getting closer to playing a complete 40-minute game. We just need to believe in ourselves and make stops when it counts."
Okonkwo finished with a team-high 19 points while Kwasinski added 14 and McComb and Stutz both contributed 13. Only once last season did four Wildcats reach double-figures in the same game.
Okonkwo also swiped a game-high four steals.
After the Wildcats' (4-13, 1-3 Big Ten) big run, Illinois worked its way back to an eight point advantage until Stutz hit a 3-pointer and was fouled with 6:39 to go in the game. She would miss the four-point opportunity and NU would get no closer the rest of the way.
"The effort was great today, but it takes more than effort to win in the Big Ten," Combs said. "We had trouble sustaining our runs and were not able to stop theirs."
Northwestern returns to action at 7 p.m. Thursday night on the road against Indiana.
