Rapid Reaction: Northwestern women’s basketball staves off Abilene Christian in 62-59 thriller

Joe McKeown took his squad down south for the Thanksgiving weekend. Specifically, Fort Meyers, for the Elevance Health Tip-Off.

Northwestern women’s basketball (6-0, Big Ten) was slated to kick off the weekend tournament on Friday morning in its first-ever meeting with Abilene Christian (4-2, WAC) inside Suncoat Credit Union Arena. The opening chapter to the Wildcat story was quite an exciting one, with the Evanston purple coming out on top 62-59.

Grace Sullivan once again led the squad with 22 points, making it the sixth straight double-digit scoring performance for the senior. Tayla Thomas came up one field goal short of a double-double, as she finished with eight points and 12 rebounds. Casey Harter and Tate Lash both had 12 apiece.

For the other Wildcats, three ACU players surpassed 10 points on Friday morning: Emma Troxell, who led with 13, and then Meredith Mayes (12) and Payton Hull (10).

Thomas started the scoring after 90 seconds of misses from both teams. It was the right place, right time, for the forward, perfectly placed to catch a Sullivan airball and lay in the putback. Sullivan responded to early adversity by putting in her next two shot attempts, with ACU center Mayes scoring a layup of her own in between the two NU possessions.

Harter canned the first three-pointer of the contest from the left wing, creating a sizable 9-2 lead with six and a half minutes left in the first quarter. Troxell sunk two from the charity stripe and Hull scored in transition to cut the ‘Cats lead back down to one score.

Troxell got up high and finished down low over Caroline Lau to further reduce the lead down to one point before the first break in the action.

Mayes dropped in another two to complete the 8-0 Abilene Christian run, giving her squad its first lead of the game before a tip-in from Thomas temporarily erased the eight-point swing.

Two Erin Woodson free throws gave her Wildcats the lead with four minutes on the clock, from which point the teams would go back-and-forth. Xamiya Walton drilled a three, Woodson got herself another layup, Sullivan hit from mid-range, Mayes scored from the restricted area and Thomas used her frame to put in a second-chance shot. The sequence occurred on consecutive possessions between teams.

Walton’s second three of the game at the 1:38 mark gave the ‘Cats a five-point lead, but Lau’s second foul of the quarter allowed Woodson to chop off two-thirds of the lead before the end of the quarter.

For Northwestern, every single point through the first 10 minutes of game time was scored by a returner. Mayes, Woodson, Trovell and Hull accounted for ACU’s first-quarter scoring.

Riley Grohman connected on her first shot attempt of the day, a three, to tie up the score at the start of the second. Harter’s euro step kept NU in front for the next three minutes, as the teams went a combined 0-for-6 before Lash’s first points of the morning.

Troxell ended the 4:30 scoring drought for ACU with her first triple of the game, but that did little to stop the Abilene Wildcat offensive woes. Harter rejected a Woodson layup to set up a fastbreak opportunity for Sullivan. She’d find the net again with a turnaround jumper following an offensive rebound, bringing her total to 10 as the buzzer sounded for halftime.

Northwestern’s 29-24 advantage didn’t come efficiently by any means. The ‘Cats from Evanston shot 36% from the field, and got no help from the charity stripe, as Abilene Christian didn’t relinquish a single shooting foul all half. Despite being the only player in double digits, Sullivan had one of her most inefficient halves of the season, shooting 5-for-13 from the field.

ACU was even worse from the field, going 8-for-29 and shooting 22% from beyond the arc. Emily Troxell led the team with seven first-half points.

A three-pointer from Payton Hull opened the second half for ACU on a high note. The squads traded layups before Lash replied with a three of her own 80 seconds later. Breanna Davis showed great ball-handling in the paint against Lau to bank home another layup, but Lash hit her second consecutive three-pointer to make it 39-31 (Northwestern) Wildcats.

Woodson showed off great court vision to find her big in Mayes for her second assist of the day, making Mayes the third ACU player with over eight points on the day. Woodson sunk a three and Troxell pulled up from 12 feet in a quick 7-0 run, bringing the difference to one. Thomas weathered through contact for a layup, but was immediately called for a technical foul as the shot went in for something she said to Troxell en route.

Northwestern was bailed out by two Woodson misses out of a NU timeout, but a Grohman three knotted up the score at 41 at the 4:07 mark. Harter went 2-for-2 from the line to keep Northwestern in front.

Mayes and Sullivan used their respective heights to score in the paint, but a long three from Davis launched Abilene Christian out in front for the first time in the second half, taking a 46-45 lead into the fourth.

With Lau and Lash in foul trouble, Angelina Hodgens entered the game for the ‘Cats at the end of the period. McKeown relegated much of NU’s ball-handling duties to Walton while playing a smaller lineup on the floor.

A foul call against Sullivan allowed Mayes to hit two from the charity stripe to give ACU some breathing room. At the start of the fourth, she was the only Abilene Christian player in double figures on the day, totaling 12 after both shots from the line.

Harter and Sullivan went back-to-back to regain the lead for Northwestern, forcing ACU head coach Julie Goodenough to take a timeout.

Troxell’s layup got ACU to 50 before the five-minute mark. NU reached 51 on Sullivan’s 10th field goal of the game, and Harter drove a dagger into the heart of ACU with a cold-blooded three to make it a four-point game with 3:45 to go.

Lau got into the scoring column for the first time, making it seven unanswered points for Northwestern. Troxell hit her third and fourth free throws of the game to counter the layup. Sullivan hit from mid-range before Davis drew a foul to bring ACU in the bonus. Davis hit the subsequent free throws before a Northwestern timeout, making the score 58-54 NU with 1:18 on the clock.

Payton Hull logged Abilene Christian’s first field goal in over five minutes to cut the lead down to two, and ACU would have a decisive possession with the shot clock turned off following a Sullivan miss. It went back to Hull with the game on the line.

Hull put the ball on the floor and drew a foul on Lash — her fourth of the game — to get a chance to tie the game at the line.

The hoop was unkind to Hull on her first attempt, as the ball took three bounces and fell off the right side of the rim. She got the second to go, but the miss forced ACU to foul Lash on the other end.

Lash saw much better luck than her ACU counterpart, hitting both to make it a three-point game with 20 seconds left.

As time continued to tick off the clock off the inbound, Hull once again took the ball to the rim for another crunch time bucket. ACU then sent Lash to the line once again, hoping for a miss. But she didn’t flinch and hit both shots.

With no timeouts and three seconds left, Troxell heaved from three-quarter court. The ball completely missed the rim and ended up in Harter’s hands. Northwestern came out on top of another one-score contest, keeping its undefeated record intact.

For Northwestern, it’s “no rest for the weary,” as it’s set to face Missouri tomorrow afternoon at 12:30 p.m. CT for its second pool play contest.