There's no sugar coating it -- Northwestern's opening night victory over IU Indy came in ugly fashion. The 'Cats shot 40% from the field. They turned the ball over a whopping 19 times.
Defensively, Northwestern played well, but IU Indy also shot incredibly poorly at 32%. If the road team had shot the ball better, Northwestern likely would have suffered a shocking opening night loss at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Instead, the 'Cats managed to get to 1-0 despite the turnovers and get head coach Joe McKeown's final season off to a winning start. It was far from perfect, and there's a lot of work to be done, but a win is a win.
Grace Sullivan led the 'Cats in scoring with 18 points. Xamiya Walton was close behind with 17, pouring in four threes. Sullivan and Tayla Thomas dominated on the glass for NU, finishing with 18 and 13 rebounds, respectively.
Sullivan was Northwestern's most prolific offensive player in the first half, scoring nine points and shooting 4-of-8 from the floor. She scored the first bucket of the season for the 'Cats on an easy lay-in, but promptly turned the ball over twice in the first five minutes.
The Wildcats got started crafting the turnover narrative early. They had four in the first quarter, and then they doubled that total in the second. Finishing one half of basketball with 12 turnovers is not good. Having three from veteran guard Caroline Lau, someone this team needs to trust handling the ball, is even worse.
Because of the turnovers, the 'Cats only led by three heading into halftime, 26-23. Late in the second quarter, the 'Cats used an 8-0 run fueled by Walton to take a more commanding lead and, with a couple minutes remaining, held an eight-point advantage.
IU Indy quickly wiped that away with five straight to end the half, putting pressure on Northwestern at the break.
The 'Cats responded well to that pressure early in the third quarter. They went on a 9-0 run to take a 35-27 lead with around seven minutes to play behind buckets from Sullivan and Harter. The latter would go on to score nine points in the quarter, crucial baskets to keep Northwestern in the lead.
At the end of the third, now with 15 turnovers on their ledger, the 'Cats led 46-42.
In the fourth, IU Indy briefly retook the lead at 58-57 with about 4:30 remaining on the clock. Immediately, Walton hit an enormous, wide-open triple to pull Northwestern back ahead.
Northwestern's offense continued to sputter, and it continued to turn the ball over. The Wildcats finished with four in the fourth quarter.
Down one with 19 seconds to play, Walton came up huge for the Wildcats with her fourth three-pointer of the night. She was Northwestern's best shooter from distance by a ton in this one. From there, the 'Cats held on and managed to get a difficult victory in McKeown's final opener.
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