Michigan State University
Northwestern
MSU Women's Basketball Stumbles At Northwestern
1/2/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 2, 2003
EVANSTON, Ill. - The Michigan State women's basketball team opened the 2002-03 Big Ten season with a disappointing 52-46 loss at Northwestern Thursday night. MSU shot just 28.1 percent from the field (16-of-57) to slip to 6-5 and 0-1 in the Big Ten. Northwestern snapped a string of 43 consecutive regular season Big Ten losses while improving to 6-6 and 1-1 in the league.
Freshman Lindsay Bowen (Dansville) had a team-high 13 points for MSU and senior Syreeta Bromfield (Kingston, Jamaica) added 12, but they were the only Spartans to reach double-digits. MSU entered the game averaging 75.6 points per game but was held to a season-low in points by the stingy Wildcat defense.
Sophomore Kristin Haynie (Mason) had team-highs of nine rebounds and seven assists and added six points for MSU, while freshman Liz Shimek (Empire) had seven points and eight boards.
"It was a very immature game for us," said MSU head coach Joanne P. McCallie. "We had poor leadership on the floor. We displayed a lack of intensity on defense and a complete lack of team focus.
"My hat is off to Northwestern," added McCallie. "Northwestern played harder and wanted it more than us."
MSU looked strong in the opening moments, roaring to an 11-1 lead in the first five minutes thanks to a pair of Bowen buckets and a Bromfield trey. But the Spartans then went cold, scoring just five points in nearly 13 minutes as the Wildcats rallied to tie the score at 16. A Bowen three-point bucket gave MSU a 21-16 lead, and the Spartans held on for a 21-18 edge at halftime. MSU sank 9-of-27 shots (33.3 percent) in the opening stanza, but Northwestern fared even worse, shooting 29.2 percent (7-of-24).
In the second half, MSU took a 26-20 lead on a Shimek basket with 17:12 left, but Northwestern answered with seven straight points to take its first lead of the game with 14:34 remaining. After four lead changes, a Haynie free throw knotted the score at 32 with 11:02 left, when the Spartans' shooting again went frigid. Northwestern scored nine straight points in the game's decisive run over the next 5:17 as MSU missed its next seven field goals and three free throws before Bromfield finally hit a free throw with 5:45 left to make it 41-33.
Northwestern led by as many as ten at 45-35 with 3:45 remaining when MSU tried making a late surge. Bromfield hit a triple to cut the margin to seven, then after the teams traded points Haynie hit a three-pointer to slice the margin to 47-43 with 58 seconds left. After a pair of Wildcat free throws, Bowen hit a trey to make it 49-46 with 26 seconds left, but Samantha McComb hit two more free throws five seconds later, and added one more in the final second.
Michigan State made just seven of its 30 field goals (23.3 percent) in the second half, and sank just half of its 14 free throw attempts during the game.
Northwestern finished the game shooting 37 percent, and committed just 10 turnovers to the Spartans' 11. MSU, which leads the Big Ten in rebounding, did own a 43-31 edge on the boards.
Michigan State will host No. 6 Purdue Monday, Jan. 6, at 7 p.m. in the Spartans' Big Ten home opener.
Spartan Notebook:
* Tonight's game marked the fourth time this season that MSU has lost after holding a halftime lead.
* The six-point loss was the Spartans' largest of the season. MSU's other four losses came by a combined 11 points, with none of them being by more than three points. Michigan State is now 0-5 in games decided by fewer than 10 points.
* Michigan State had season-lows in points (46), field goals made (16), field goal percentage (.281), free throws made (seven), free throw percentage (.500) and turnovers (11).
* Michigan State's bench was outscored 19-4.
