HAMMOND, Ind. – The Purdue Northwest women's basketball team overcame a six-point deficit in the final minute to defeat Northern Michigan 53-52 in thrilling fashion on Saturday.
PNW improved to 5-9 in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play and 8-13 overall on the season. The five league wins are tied for the program's highest total since joining the GLIAC. NMU dropped to 8-11 (3-9 GLIAC).
HEAD COACH COURTNEY LOCKE:
"Huge, huge wins. We are playing with confidence. There's belief from our team no matter what it is at the end of a game. They showed up and I couldn't be prouder of this team. (Defense) is our identity and we are sticking to it. It's about our defense and that's the only way we are in these games. Other than Michigan Tech, which was 89 points, we are sitting sixth, or fifth, in points allowed. For us, that's what we want to be. We want to be the team that can get stops and we were able to do that late in the game."
How it happened: Trailing 52-46 with under a minute,
Kennedy Jackson (Carson, Calif./Redondo Union) quickly drained a three and the PNW defense stepped up in a big way to force a turnover.
Dash Shaw (Crown Point, Ind./Crown Point) was fouled with 21 seconds to go and she drained both ends of the bonus to cut the Wildcats' lead down to 52-51.
Another foul by the Wildcats with 13 seconds left sent Shaw back to the line for a chance to win it for her team. The sophomore guard stepped to the line with ice in her veins and calmly knocked down both free throws to give the Pride the victory.
"I'm hard on her for her intensity at times," Locke said. "But she shows up and continues to show up. She's a special kid. I am super proud of this team. Kennedy was the leading scorer tonight. I think we've had nine or ten leading scorers (this season). We have each kid stepping up in different moments and that's huge."
Jackson led all PNW scorers with a career-best 12 points, along with three rebounds and three assists. Shaw chipped in with 11 points in 28 minutes off the bench.
Antreese Shelton (Elkhart, Ind./Penn) and
Abbie McDowell (Tecumseh, Mich./Tecumseh) added seven points each.
Kylie Schmidt (Francis Creek, Wis./Mishicot) tied her career-high with 10 rebounds.
Northern Michigan built up a 32-19 lead at the 5:16 mark of the second quarter, but the Pride would claw their way back into the game cutting the deficit down to 32-26 at the break. The Wildcats were held scoreless until Elizabeth Lutz's pair of made three throws with 3:33 left in the third quarter for a scoreless streak of 11:43 of game time.
PNW fell behind by as many as eight with seven minutes remaining, before the late-game heroics won the Pride their second game of the week.
UP NEXT
The Pride will be on the road next weekend when they travel to Detroit to take on Wayne State at 4 p.m. on Thursday and will then follow that up with a Saturday contest slated for a noon tipoff at Saginaw Valley State.
FOLLOW THE PRIDE
For all the latest information on Purdue Northwest Women's Basketball, please visit PNWathletics.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Pride (@pnwathletics & @PNWWBB) on Twitter. You can also find the Pride on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
