WACO, Texas (AP) - Northwestern coach Joe McKeown felt his team was in control throughout the second half.
The Wildcats just couldn’t hold on at the end after building a 13-point lead in their first NCAA Tournament game since 1997.
Melissa Wolff had 13 points and 15 rebounds, and Jessica Jackson made the tiebreaking free throw with 30 seconds left as Arkansas charged back for a 57-55 first-round win Friday.
“Couldn’t finish it out. They made shots when they had to. Made a couple of plays, some and-ones,” said McKeown, in his 18th NCAA tournament as head coach, first in his seven seasons at Northwestern. “We just needed one more play and that was really the game.”
Jackson’s free throw made it 56-55, giving the Razorbacks (18-13) their first lead after halftime. But they missed three consecutive free throws after that, including Jackson’s second attempt that Wolff chased down the rebound near the sideline and called timeout with Northwestern players surrounding her.
“We continued every timeout to drive home offensive glass. Offensive glass. Keep throwing body blows, and one of these offensive rebounds is gonna win us the game,” Arkansas coach Jimmy Dykes said. “I think it ultimately did, the one by Melissa Wolff.”
Arkansas has 20 offensive rebounds, nine by Wolff.
Kelsey Brooks had 15 points and Jhasmin Bowen 12 for Arkansas, the No. 10 seed in the Oklahoma City Regional.
Ashley Deary and Alex Cohen each had 13 points for Northwestern (23-9) from the Big Ten. Maggie Lyon had 12 points and Nia Coffey 11.
The Big Ten Wildcats opened the second half with three consecutive layups by Lyon, Deary and Coffey in a 75-second span to turn a halftime tie into a 29-23 lead. They led 48-35 on Coffey’s layup with 11:39 left.
“They were playing really good defense. We went on our streak when we were playing together and I think we lost a little bit of sight of that,” Coffey said. “But we did a good job of just finishing out our plays and playing together. We just didn’t make shots when we needed to.”
Arkansas from the SEC cut the gap to a single possession by scoring 10 straight points. Calli Berna’s 3-pointer, her only points of the game, started the run with 8:16 left, before Brooks had a layup and Bowen a three-point play. Wolff’s jumper with 5:48 left got them within 51-49.
Northwestern didn’t score again after Cohen’s bank shot with 3:59 left put the Wildcats up 55-51.
After Wolff missed two free throws with 14 seconds left, Coffey got that rebound, and then rebounded her own miss. But she threw the ball right into the hands of Brooks.
“Ultimately, it came down to one play,” Cohen said. “And we weren’t able to finish the game.”
TIP-INS
Arkansas: The Razorbacks matched Northwestern 16-16 in the paint after halftime, after the Wildcats had a 14-0 edge in the first half. … Arkansas shot only 32 percent from the field (21 of 66).
Northwestern: McKeown coached his first NCAA Tournament game in his seven seasons with the Wildcats, after he went to the tournament 15 times in 19 seasons at George Washington, and twice in three seasons at New Mexico State. … The Wildcats were held 18 points below their season average.
DIFFERENCE MAKER
When asked about Arkansas’ 20 offensive rebounds, McKeown responded, “Obviously when you lose a game that you feel like you had great chances to win, you look back on those things and say ’We didn’t block out on free throws. We gave them two shots at times in the second half.’ And that became the difference in the game.”
LONG DROUGHTS: After Brooks hit an 3-pointer for Arkansas for an early 5-2 lead, the Razorbacks missed eight shots in a row over a span of more than 6 minutes before Wolff’s jumper with 12:19 left and tied the game at 11-all. The Razorbacks had three scoreless stretches of at least 4½ minutes in the game.
UP NEXT
Arkansas: The Razorbacks play host Baylor or Northwestern State in a second-round game Sunday.
Northwestern: Season over.
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