After a solid road start to its season, the Northern State women’s basketball team had a rough home opener Wednesday evening.
The Wolves dropped their Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference opener to Jamestown 65-48 at Wachs Arena following a 3-1 start against non-conference foes.
NSU coach Paula Krueger said the pressure of playing in front of the hometown fans played a key role.
“I wish that everybody could have seen our first four games, because we did not look anything like that in the first four,” Krueger said. “I think there’s a little bit of the we come back here, this is an intimidating place, and you want to do so well. And then you’re really tight.”
The Jimmies took advantage of that tentativeness to go on scoring runs throughout the game, eventually taking control of the contest.
“I was just seeing a lot of tension. When they made their runs, we kind of got tight. On the road, we’ve been using that and kind of loosening up, getting gritty, getting tough,” said Northern senior Izzy Moore. “I felt like today, we kind of went the other way with it.”
The most notable run for the Jimmies came in the fourth quarter. Moore hit a jump shot to pull the Wolves with 52-48 with 6:15 left in the game. Jamestown then scored the final 13 points of the game to ice the victory.
“But what’s even more important are withstanding the runs of other teams, playing and making sure you can shorten those up, so they’re not runs that take over the game,” Krueger said. “Unfortunately, that’s what happened to us in the fourth quarter. We cut it to four and never scored again.”
With just one returning starter on this year’s squad, along with a few other role players, the Wolves find themselves with a young team full of new faces.
“I do think that when you’ve got a young team, you’ve gotta learn some peaks and valleys. And I think the valleys are probably gonna be pretty low, and the peaks are gonna be pretty high,” said Krueger. “Trying to find that middle ground is gonna be really important for us. But you can’t shoot the way that we did tonight and win games. And you can’t turn it over 20 times and win games.”
While shots may not fall some nights, taking care of the basketball is something more controllable.
“Shots weren’t falling. We turned the ball over 20 times,” said Moore. “Those are controllables that you always have to have, especially when you’re losing and the shots aren’t falling.”
The Wolves shot 34% from the field, 11% from the 3-point line, and 58% from the free-throw line. Jamestown also took advantage of the NSU miscues, as the Jimmies scored 19 points off of turnovers.
Moore scored the final points of the first two quarters hitting a jump shot as time expired in the opening period, and making two free throws right before the half.
“It’s good to go into the next quarter with some momentum, feeling like we’re good,” Moore said. “The ball can still go in the hoop.”
While Northern’s defense kept the Wolves in the game, it was unable to get the stops it needed with the game on the line.
“We did some things well and then down the stretch, we gave up too many layups and we gave up some uncontested threes,” Krueger said. “We got tips, we got pieces of the ball, but now we gotta get the ball. It’s not enough to tip the ball, and if we’re gonna hang our hat on defense, those balls have to belong to us.”
Moore finished the night with a team-high 17 points, followed by Morgan Fiedler with nine, and Megan counts with eight.
The Wolves will hit the road this weekend to take on Sioux Falls on Saturday, and Southwest Minnesota State in Marshall, Minn. on Sunday.
“I feel like it was a good learning experience. We’ve had a lot of these tight games, and fortunately, we’ve been able to pull them out. And tonight, we obviously weren’t, so it kind of puts a little chip on your shoulder,” Moore said. “Now we have to go to USF and SMSU, and those are two really good teams. So, we’ll have good opportunities to try and get a good win after this bad loss.”
To see a complete box score, click on the following link:
