Northwestern women’s basketball rolls to 22-point win over Evansville

Fresh off an upset win over Florida, Northwestern (5-1) women’s basketball continued its positive momentum with a clinical 88-66 win over Evansville (0-5). Nia Coffey scored 30 points and sophomore Amber Jamison added a career-high 15 to ensure there would be no letdown in Evanston.

Northwestern was again without guard Christen Inman, who has now missed the last two games with an “upper body injury”. That didn’t matter at the outset for the Wildcats, however, as they reeled off a 23-4 first quarter run. Coffey scored 12 of the team’s first 14 points as Evansville looked completely out of sorts. The first quarter ended 31-12 with the bench unit comfortably holding its own.

Matters would get tighter in the second quarter, however, as Evansville used two 8-0 runs to cut the Northwestern lead to 4 points with one minute remaining in the period. Coffey did not score at all in the second quarter as Evansville’s Sara Dickey heated up from beyond the arc with three three-pointers. After dominating the first quarter, Evansville won the second quarter 24-12. Only a late three from Lauren Douglas, who reached 1,000 career points in this game, kept the Northwestern advantage at 43-36.

But halftime re-energized the Wildcats, who were possibly a bit tired from playing six grueling quarters in two days. Coffey’s first field goal since the first quarter put Northwestern up 49-38, and from there Northwestern was able to shut the door. Deary, Coffey and Douglas meshed better offensively and the team benefitted from a surprising offensive outburst from Amber Jamison, who had been averaging just 4.6 minutes per game prior to her 18 minutes on Sunday.

Northwestern stretched the lead back to 18 points by the end of the third quarter, giving the team an insurmountable advantage heading into the fourth. Northwestern’s bench units played out of the end of the game as Joe McKeown’s squad cruised to a 22-point home victory.

Northwestern’s next game will be on December 1st against Virginia at Welsh-Ryan.