Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Battle Intra-City Rival DePaul at Noon Wednesday
12/11/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 11, 2006
DePaul Game Notes
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EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern travels to intra-city rival and 17th-ranked DePaul for a noon showdown Wednesday at McGrath Arena. The Wildcats have already faced -- and defeated -- city foes Loyola and Illinois-Chicago so far this season. Northwestern (6-3), whose six victories this season matches last year's entire 2005-06 total, is looking to snap its first losing skid of the season.
"This is a special team and we know what we need to do and will get it done," head coach Beth Combs said. "We are moving in the right direction and look forward to the challenge of DePaul."
Last Time Out...
Though Northwestern shot nearly 50 percent from the field, Missouri proved to be too much, downing the Wildcats 78-59 Sunday afternoon at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Three Wildcats scored in double figures, led by A.J. Glasauer who dumped in a team-high 15 points.
Missouri (9-1) jumped out to a 12-3 lead to open the game, but Northwestern (6-3) started clicking on offense and battled back to pull the score to 18-14 at the 10-minute mark of the game.
Sara Stutz's three-pointer pulled the score to 22-19 at the 8:10 mark, capping off a 13-8 Northwestern run.
Missouri answered with an 8-0 run to push the lead to 30-19 with six minutes left in the game.
The Tigers led at halftime, 41-29. Stutz led all NU scorers at halftime with eight points.
Missouri went on a 9-2 run to open the second half, inflating the score to 52-31 at the 16:30 mark. The Wildcats answered with an 8-2 run capped off by a jumper by Stutz, forcing the Tigers to call a timeout with the score 55-41 with 12 minutes left.
Despite shooting 48 percent in the second half, Northwestern could not get any closer and Missouri recorded its second win over the Wildcats in as many years.
Stutz recorded 10 points, while sophomore Kristin Cartwright also contributed 10. Kaitlin McInerney led the 'Cats with seven rebounds.
The Wildcats hung with Missouri on the boards, pulling down 30 rebounds to the Tigers' 32. Missouri's defense forced a season-high 24 NU turnovers.
Scouting the Blue Demons
DePaul enters Wednesday's contest on a six-game winning streak and ranked 17th in this week's Associated Press poll. Most recently, DePaul defeated conference foe Rutgers in the Big East opener, 87-73, Friday night. Allie Quigley and Caprice Smith are both scoring in double figures with 19 and 16.3 ppg. Quigley was tabbed Big East Player of the Week after her career-high 37-point performance against the Scarlet Knights. Erin Carney leads DePaul with 10.2 rpg, followed by Smith who is averaging 10 rebounds per game.
The Series with DePaul
This will be the 23rd time these two intra-city squads have been pitted against each other, with Northwestern winning 10 of those contests. Last season, the Blue Demons defeated Northwestern 78-58 at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
'Cat Nips
Glasauer Leading the Way
Senior captain A.J. Glasauer has been the Wildcats' leading scorer in five out of NU's first nine contests. She is averaging a team-best 13.9 points per game, while dishing out a team-best 36 assists. The Freiburg, Germany native is shooting 40 percent from the field, including a team-best 12-of-28 (43 percent) from beyond the arc. Glasauer is also connecting at the charity stripe, knocking down 21-of-27 free throws. She also leads the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio with 2.77 (13 turnovers compared to 36 assists).
Purple Hair Dare!
Head Coach Beth Combs' has been dared to dye her hair purple if there are 3,000 pre-sold tickets to the January 7 game. Be a part of the excitement -- and see coach with purple hair -- on January 7 when the 'Cats take on Big Ten rival Iowa at 2 p.m. at Welsh-Ryan Arena. In addition, the first 500 fans college age and under will receive a purple wig! Tickets are $7 for adults, $4 for children and $2 each for groups of 15 or more.
Live From Welsh-Ryan Arena
All home games will be broadcast LIVE on NUSports.com via College Sports Online's All-Access. To watch the games, navigate to the audio/video page on NUSports.com, where a link to the broadcasts will appear shortly the game. All-Access is a premium service offering live and tape-delayed broadcasts of many Northwestern sports and includes exclusive interviews, highlights, features and press conference content.
Sticking Around
More than half of this year's roster is comprised of in-state products. Six Wildcats -- Nadia Bibbs (Chicago), Lakhiyia Hicks (Rockford), Erin Dickerson (Chicago), Kristin Cartwright (Lake Forest), Sara Stutz (Glenview) and Kaitlin McInerney (Oak Brook) -- hail from the Land of Lincoln.
