Jan. 4, 2004

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. - After starting the season 7-4, Northwestern women's basketball was eagerly looking to make a strong statement in their 2004 Big Ten opener. But they fell short of that goal on Sunday after resorting to defense for the majority of the game vs. Michigan. The Wolverines scored 23 points off of NU's 23 turnovers to take the game 62-43.

"We didn't take care of the ball or rebound today," said head coach June Olkowski. "We gave up 21 offensive rebounds and had 23 turnovers. That is a lot of extra possessions to give up to a fighting Michigan team."

Freshman Alex Mueller was a Northwestern highlight for the 402 fans at Welsh-Ryan Arena, hitting five of six field goals, including three of four threes for a team-high 13 points. Ifeoma Okonkwo chipped in nine points to come in second.

The two teams kept it close in the first half, with Northwestern taking a one-point lead into the locker room, ahead 25-24. The 'Cats held the Wolverines to a 28.6% field goal percentage in the first and shot 50.0% themselves, but only made 22 attempts. Mueller and classmate A.J. Glasauer accounted for 14 of those points.

The Wolverines opened it up in the second, grabbing the lead at 16:15 after back-to-back fouls, and they never looked back. The 'Cats were held scoreless for over four minutes, in which time they committed four fouls and six turnovers, giving Michigan an 11-point lead.

"We would play really good defense and they would offensive rebound. We'd play defense again, they'd offensive rebound. We just played a minute plus of good solid defense and then we don't rebound and they score. Tough to win that way."

Another five-minute scoreless drought late put Northwestern away as they fell behind by as many as 19 to end the game.

"We've been a M.A.S.H. unit lately and it caught up to us today," said Olkowski. "We were able to get away with not having people out in previous games, but not in the Big Ten. Offensively, their pressure hurt us. We missed Samantha (McComb), but that's no excuse. 'Mo' (Culver) and A.J. (Glasauer) have enough experience as does everybody else to take a little responsibility for taking care of the ball."

Big Ten play continues on Thursday when league-leading Minnesota comes to Evanston. Game time is set for 7 p.m. CST.