Northwest Missouri State’s women avoided a letdown in their final game before the holidays and Tarkio product Denise McEnaney earned extended playing time, playing 20 minutes as she worked her way into the rotation for at least one game. Northwest rolled to a 79-45 win over Midland Lutheran as they used a strong second half to pull away.
Monique Stevens scored the first six points for Northwest, but Coach Mark Kellogg was not happy with his team’s play in the early going, burning two timeouts in the first 3:37. Midland was playing Northwest full court man to man throughout the game. The object of their defense was to force Northwest into starting their offense way out top and force the entry pass outside the 3-point area; it is a lot harder for a team to run its plays that far away from the basket. Consequently, Northwest had a lot of possessions when they went deep into the shot clock trying to get penetration.
Midland Lutheran presented a different challenge for Northwest on offense as well; they did not have a lot of shooters, but they had a lot of slashers and they were eating Northwest’s trapping zone alive off the dribble in the first 10 minutes of the game, keeping right up with Northwest on the scoreboard.
But when Northwest switched to a man to man, they did a much better job of limiting Lutheran’s drives out of their man to man defense than they did out of their zone.
Denise showed herself to be a steady hand for Northwest, not getting beat on defense by Lutheran’s slashers and taking care of the ball on offense, taking what the defense gave her. A lot of players try to do too much to impress the coach when they get unexpected playing time; however, Denise did not do that. Northwest was up 16-13 when she came in for the first time and they were up 35-24 when she left late in the first half. She scored four points off a pair of wing pullups and she found Maggie Marnin inside on a lob pass during her time on the floor.
Late in the first half, Northwest started getting some second chance points as well as some stops on defense; Ashleigh Nelson hit a 3-pointer and converted it into a four-point play for Northwest’s biggest lead of the half at 35-20 as she was knocked down on a 3-point try.
But Midland cut it back to 35-24 as Northwest failed to protect the back side twice. Coaches frequently teach their players to help on defense; however, players sometimes forget that they still have to protect the basket as well.
Northwest had to shake up their lineup at the start of the second half as Tember Schechinger picked up her third foul and sat down and Meridee Scott got a bloody lip and had to come out in the first three minutes of the half.
Denise once again came in and provided a steady hand, throwing a strike to Maggie Marnin inside. Instead of going into the tank when two of their big guns went down, Northwest rallied and Monique Stevens provided the backbreaker play, stealing an inbounds pass and throwing it to Ashleigh Nelson for a layup to make it 43-27. That seemed to demoralize Midland Lutheran and the lead grew to 46-27 by the time Tember and Meridee both came back in.
Meridee played with a chip on her shoulder after coming back, running over a defender trying to pressure her after grabbing a defensive board right off the bat. She was much more aggressive going to the basket after coming back as the lead swelled into the 20’s.
Monique Stevens played well, taking a charge on defense and freezing two defenders on one take to the basket before throwing it up and in. Northwest continued to dominate the offensive glass, collecting a ton of second and third chance points as they grew their lead into the 30’s down the stretch.
Northwest was led by Maggie Marnin with 19 points; Midland Lutheran didn’t have an answer for her and Northwest was able to lob the ball to her frequently in the paint. Meridee Scott followed with 14 and Monique Stevens had 13. Ashleigh Nelson had 9, Annie Matthews 8, Alexis Boeh had 7, and Denise McEnaney and Tember Schechinger 4 each. Annie Matthews had 7 boards while Monique, Tember, and Maggie had 5 each. Monique Stevens led with 7 assists followed by Ashley Thayer with 4. Tember Schechinger had four teals, followed by Meridee Scott with 3.
The most telling stat was in the turnover category – Northwest had a season low 11 turnovers while forcing 29 Midland Lutheran turnovers. Northwest scored 32 points off of turnovers while Midland scored only 10. Northwest outscored Lutheran 30-20 in the paint, 18-11 in second chance points, and 25-18 in bench points.
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