“Free-throw shooting is contagious,” DePaul women’s coach Doug Bruno observed Tuesday night. “We’ve had some great nights, 80 percent nights at the line. And we’ve had some stinky nights. . . .”
The odor at Welsh-Ryan Arena indicated the kind of foul shooting Bruno’s Blue Demons had Tuesday night. They made just 2 of 9 free throws (.222), and Northwestern hit 25 of 35 (.714) in the Wildcats’ 72-67 victory. NU improved to 8-18. DePaul fell to 9-15.
Free-throw shooting alone did not decide the game. The Wildcats realized 60 points from their big three: Kristina Divjak (25), Amber DeWall (19) and Megan Chawansky (16). And Divjak had a career-high 12 rebounds.
But foul shooting was major. The Demons went 0 for 7 from the foul line for the first 37:26, until Mfon Udoka, who totaled 18 points and 13 rebounds, made her team’s only two free throws to cut NU’s lead to 64-62 with 2:34 to play.
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Northwestern then was shut out until Candis Blankson knocked down a meaningless three-point basket at the buzzer. In the same 2:34, NU went 8 for 10 from the foul line. And Divjak recovered rebounds on the Demons’ last four missed shots.
Guards Chawansky and DeWall explained that coach Don Perrelli plotted for the Cats to work the Demons into foul trouble.
“DePaul always plays a physical game and plays right on you,” said Chawansky. “We figured if we took it to them, they might foul and get us to the bonus.”
DeWall scored 12 points as DePaul took a 37-31 halftime lead. Divjak scored 17 of her 25 and Chawansky 11 of her 16 in the second half when the Cats rallied, took, the lead, and kept it thanks to free throws.
Bill Jauss.
Rutgers 74, Connecticut 70: Host Rutgers used a late spurt to stun No. 2 Connecticut and become only the second team in the Big East to beat the Huskies.
The upset snapped UConn’s Big East winning streak at 53 games and was only the second loss for the Huskies (23-2, 13-1) this season. Top-ranked Tennessee is the only other team to beat UConn this year.
Linda Miles had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead Rutgers (15-7, 11-3) in the biggest victory for coach C. Vivian Stringer since she took over the program in 1995.
Trailing 53-47 with 9:50 to go, Rutgers went on a 26-12 run to open a 73-65 lead.
Nykesha Sales had 27 points to lead UConn.
Florida 110, Central Florida 61: Talatha Bingham scored 24 points and Muriel Page got the 60th double-double of her career as the No. 8 Gators (19-5) scored their biggest win of the season. Central is 13-8.
Vanderbilt 65, S. Illinois 53: Lisa Ostrom scored 18 points and Katie Janky added 16 in leading No. 15 Vanderbilt (17-5). Theia Hudson’s 18 points and a game-high 13 rebounds topped the host Salukis (8-13).