Northwestern University Athletics
Season Recap: Wildcats Begin New Era
4/27/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
April 27, 2005
EVANSTON, Ill. -- The 2004-05 season marked the first in a new era of women's basketball at Northwestern. Head coach Beth Combs took over with sights set on restoring the Wildcats to their successes of year's past, and saw some significant strides made despite the appearances of a 5-25 overall record.
Northwestern took on one of the toughest schedules in the nation--ranked first in the Big Ten and 10th overall in the country by the WBCA/Summerville RPI--and showed little quit during the course of the season. A handful of Wildcats broke school records and the team recorded perhaps NU's biggest victory since the millennium.
After beginning the season with a pair of road losses to WNIT qualifiers Creighton and West Virginia, Northwestern picked up its first victory of the Combs' era in its home opener against Western Michigan, 64-60.
"I was extremely proud of the girls," Combs said after the game. "They came out from the get-go and played their hearts out for 40 minutes, which is something we have stressed from Day One."
While getting W's would come few and far between, Combs continued to press her team to play hard for 40 minutes, and the team responded with some fantastic achievements.
On Dec. 5 against Virginia at the Mildred and Roger L. White Invitational, senior Sarah Kwasinski (Chicago, Ill./Fenwick) notched the 1,000th point of her career. She would conclude her senior season with 1,248 career points.
Early on in the season, it was senior Suzanne Morrison (Franklin, Mich./Detroit Country Day) who led the team in scoring, but she went down with an injury on Dec. 12 at UW-Milwaukee. The team stepped up in her absence, with four different Wildcats setting a career best for points in each of the next five games.
Junior Ifeoma Okonkwo (Spring, Texas/Klein Oak) poured in 21 against UIC, followed by 28 points from Kwasinski at Florida International, 16 and 20 points from sophomore A.J. Glasauer (Freiburg, Germany/Theodor-Huess-Gymansium) during the Wildcats' first two games at the San Juan Shootout, and 14 points from freshman Sara Stutz (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South) in the tournament's finale.
In San Juan, Northwestern took advantage of its time in the sun to put together a 2-1 record and a third-place finish with wins over Northern Iowa and Towson.
Entering the Big Ten slate following that success, NU fell at powerhouse Minnesota before opening the Conference home slate on Jan. 2 against Wisconsin. Senior Samantha McComb (Farmington Hills, Mich./North Farmington) went 4-for-4 from beyond 3-point range in the game, setting a Northwestern single-game record.
McComb would remain among the Conference leaders in 3-point shooting all season, and concluded her career as one of the most prolific scorers from long range in school history. She also led Northwestern in minutes all season, grinding out game after game as the Wildcats floor general.
NU picked up its first Big Ten win of the season in its next game on Jan. 5 against Michigan, 66-59. Holding on to a tenuous lead late in the game, the 6-foot-4 Kwasinski hit just the fifth 3-ball of her career with 56 seconds left to ice the game for the Wildcats.
As the Wildcats entered the meat of the tough Big Ten schedule, several Wildcats stepped up with big performances in losing efforts. On Jan. 9 against Illinois, Glasauer dished out a career-best 10 assists--the best single-game total in the Big Ten on the year. On Jan. 16, Okonkwo became the first Wildcat since Kristina Divjak in 1998 to score 30 points in a game when she dropped 30 on No. 21 Iowa in Iowa City.
Right in the heart of a five-game stretch against ranked opponents, Northwestern picked up its final win of the season--and it was a big one. Perennial power Penn State came to Welsh-Ryan Arena ranked No. 22 in the country and left on the wrong end of a 59-48 final score.
The win was the first over a ranked opponent for the Wildcats since Jan. 17, 1999, when NU defeated then-No. 17 Ohio State, 48-41. It was the first win for Northwestern over the Lady Lions since Jan. 31, 1997.
"We beat a fantastic team," Combs said. "All season long we talked about work ethic and against Penn State we did some good things that they were unable to respond to."
Northwestern went on to drop its final nine games of the year, but there were still highlights for a hard-working group of women. Kwasinski became the school's all-time leading shot blocker on Feb. 3 at Michigan State when she rejected the 174th shot of her career.
Reserve sophomore Breanne Smilie (Hawthorn Woods, Ill./Fenwick) turned in her best performance of the season on Feb. 23 at Wisconsin, playing a season-high 29 minutes and helping to orchestrate a late second-half run for the `Cats that nearly resulted in the upset.
Senior Melissa Culver (Littleton, Colo./Heritage) contributed her specialty--the 3-point shot--all season long, joining McComb in the NU record books as one of the all-time best 3-point shooters in school history.
In addition to the conclusion of careers for some of Northwestern's best, new careers started off well in 2004-05. Freshman Melissa Miller (Bloomington, Minn./The Breck School) finished the year as NU's top rebounder while Stutz poured in a career-best 22 points in the regular-season finale against Minnesota.
Freshman Kelly Rae Finley (Edina, Minn./The Breck School) battled injury problems all year, but before being sidelined for the season before the start of the Big Ten slate, she started eight games and reached double figures once, scoring a team-best 14 points at No. 19 DePaul on Nov. 27.
The first season of the Beth Combs era had its share of special moments and prime-time performances, and although the record was not the most sparkling thing in the world, the year proved there is plenty to be optimistic about for the near-future of Northwestern women's basketball.
