Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
10-0
Eastern Illinois
3-8
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Illinois | 17 | 27 | 44 |
| Northwestern | 48 | 44 | 92 |
Team Stats
Game Leaders
Players Mentioned
Northwestern's Win Streak Reaches 10 Against Eastern Illinois
12/20/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Northwestern 92, Eastern Illinois 44 Wells Fargo Arena • Tempe, Ariz. Box Score | Box Score 
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TEMPE, Ariz. -- Northwestern won its 10th consecutive game to open the 2014-15 season Saturday, an emphatic 92-44 triumph over Eastern Illinois on the first day of the ASU Classic in Tempe, Ariz. It is the longest winning streak in program history since the 1989-90 campaign.
The Wildcats jumped all over the Panthers from the start. Maggie Lyon, who celebrated her birthday Saturday, drained a 3-pointer from the right pocket 1:22 into the game and Northwestern was off to the races. Ashley Deary, who entered Saturday ranked second in the NCAA in steals picked Grace Lennox's pocket and took it the distance to give NU a 7-2 lead. The theft and bucket sparked a 9-0 run that finished when Nia Coffey took a pass from Christen Inman, who threaded the needle through the defense, and scored to put the 'Cats ahead 14-2 with 14:55 left in the half.
Northwestern swarmed to the ball during the first half, creating 11 steals and forcing EIU 17 turnovers. Deary, Coffey and Inman each picked up three steals.
Offensively, eight different players scored in the first half for the 'Cats led by Lauren Douglas who poured in 10 in 15 minutes of action off the bench. All told, NU's bench outscored the Panthers, 18-2 in the first half. Freshman Alexis Glasgow netted six points on a pair of 3-pointers in three minutes to close out the half. Her triple with 1:31 to go gave her squad its largest lead of the half at 31 points and they would hold the edge into the break. NU led EIU 48-17 at the half.
Inman came out with a hot hand to open the second half. The sophomore scored eight of the first 10 points in the half and her assist on Alex Cohen's 3-pointer gave Northwestern a 63-19 lead with 16:33 left in the game. The Wildcats never led by fewer than 42 points for the duration of the game and they won by a final score of 92-44.
"Like every team that aspires to be really good, we're just going one game at a time," said Northwestern head coach Joe McKeown. "I thought we did a lot of good things today. We shared the basketball, we scored in transition and we executed pretty well."
NU accumulated 25 assists on 37 field goals Saturday, marking the third time this season that the team posted 20-or-more. Eight players had a least two, led by Iman who matched a career high with five.
"We're just really focused on us," said McKeown. "One thing I learned in being a head coach for 30 years is to really take one game at a time and focus on getting better every single day."
The bench played an integral role during the second half, as well. Glasgow finished with a career-high nine points, while Allie Tuttle added career highs in points (eight) and rebounds (five). The Wildcats used seven members of its bench in the victory with all seven playing at least 10 minutes in the contest. The bench outscored EIU's, 41-15.
Coffey led all players with 15 points, while Inman and Douglass netted 14 apiece. For Inman, her five assists not only led all players in the game, it matched EIU's entire team output for the day. She also picked up a game-high six steals, which marked a career high.
The Wildcats shot 49.3 percent at Wells Fargo Arena, while limiting the Panthers to a mark of 31.9 percent. NU's 21 steals were the second-most this season behind a 21-theft effort at Chicago State on Nov. 14. Eastern Illinois had 31 turnovers and the 'Cats scored 39 points off those miscues. On the flipside, NU turned it over a season-low nine times Saturday.
Northwestern's 48-point margin of victory is also its second largest, behind a 54-point win against CSU.
Northwestern advances to the championship game of the ASU Classic where it will battle with host Arizona State Sunday at approximately 2 p.m. The Sun Devils knocked off Lehigh in the first game of the tournament, 81-61. It will be the first-ever meeting between NU and ASU on the hardwood.
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