Wildcat Women Fall Flat Against Minnesota-Duluth
Click the thumbnails to see photos and hear post-game comments from NMU Coach Casey Thousand.
MARQUETTE---Not much went right for the Northern Michigan University women's basketball team on Friday as the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldog led from start to finish in posting a 50-37 win at the Berry Event Center.
The Wildcats trailed by as many as 26 points in the fourth quarter before outscoring the Bulldogs' reserve players, 15-2, to finish the game.
Brooke Olson had 18 points and six rebounds to lead Duluth, who improve to 4-1.
“She's a very good player and we knew that going in,” NMU Coach Casey Thousand said. “She's a beast. And so, for us, I thought our defense was huge to start, and we did some good things, but that ball just would not go through the hoop. No matter what we did, it just would not fall for us.”
Northern missed all 15 of their three-point field goal attempts, and ended up shooting 25-percent from the floor all together.
“We were trying to handle the ball a little bit too much,” Thousand said. “We got a little gun-shy and tried wait for somebody else to do something instead of jumping in and doing it themselves. This has got to be a quick turnaround because we play again tomorrow. We've just got to bounce back and figure some things around.”
Duluth only made five three-pointers of their own, but Thousand says those were all big shots.
“It seemed like they hit those threes at the right time, and that kind of put us back a little bit,” Thousand said. “And when you go “0-for” from the three-point line, that's a rough day.”
NMU scored just eleven points in the first half and trailed, 27-11, at halftime. The third quarter wasn't much better, as the 'Cats were down, 44-20, heading into the fourth quarter.
They fell behind by 48-22 before making some shots at the end to cut the 26-point lead in half. Alyssa Nimz had eight of those 15 late points for NMU.
Makaylee Kuhn had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the 'Cats, who fall to 4-2 on the season with St. Cloud State coming to Marquette for a Saturday game.
“St. Cloud is good, as well (as Duluth),” Thousand said. “It's going to be a rough game. It's going to be a physical game. They're very similar. They've got a big girl inside, and they've got a scorer, a freshman who's a stud scorer right now. I think that today, we're going to learn from it, we're going to grow, and we're going to be ready to go tomorrow.”
Saturday's game starts at 3:00 at the Berry Events Center.
|