A tale of two fourth quarters for Northwestern women’s basketball at Ft. Myers Tip-Off

Ignore the box score, and Northwestern women’s basketball played two down-to-the-wire games in Ft. Myers this past weekend, splitting the contests. What decided the outcomes in each showdown was the fourth quarter.

First, the Wildcats narrowly defeated Abilene Christian 62-59 in a game that went back and forth. But the stretch that put Northwestern over the edge was a 5:11 field goal drought from ACU in the fourth, in which the ‘Cats from Evanston capitalized on by turning a one-point deficit into a lead as large as six with 1:27 left.

After Caroline Lau sat for much of the first half due to foul trouble, her second-half presence for NU allowed it to play faster, leading to a series of impactful buckets from herself and assists to Grace Sullivan down the stretch. Ultimately, clutch free throws from Tate Lash officially sealed it for Northwestern, but it secured the upper hand as soon as ACU’s scoring drought began.

The waning moments of Northwestern’s contest against Missouri couldn’t have been more different. Like its game the day prior, it was one with momentum shifts going towards both teams. The Tigers controlled the game more than the ACU Wildcats did, exiting each quarter with the lead, but it was a five-point game before the final media timeout. The ‘Cats didn’t push back at all then, however, instead collapsing defensively.

While Missouri’s Grace Slaughter was the Woman of the Hour with a game-leading 33 points, it was a series of buckets from Jordana Reisma, Chloe Sotell and Jayla Smith that blew the game open for the Tigers. Less than two minutes after the media timeout, UM led by double-digits, an advantage that swelled to as much as 18 points with 1:20 left. In the end, Missouri defeated Northwestern 85-70 in a game that was much closer than the scoreboard suggested.

Yes, context matters here. Missouri is ranked 71st in the Bart Torvik rankings, while Abilene Christian is ranked 128th, so the Tigers were a clear step up in competition. The ACU Wildcats rank eighth in Division I in forced turnovers per game and forced Northwestern into their trap at times, but they don’t have offensive stars like Slaughter or a Smith who can come off the bench and drop 15 points. ACU also didn’t shoot a whopping 50% from three, as Missouri did on Saturday. It’s not rocket science as to why Northwestern struggled more to finish a game against a better team.

However, highlighting the difference in Northwestern’s fourth-quarter showings is important in the larger context for this team. At Big Ten Media Day in October, one of the first basketball-related points that NU head coach Joe McKeown made was that the team needed to finish games better. There was merit to his point. In the 2024-25 season, Northwestern let close games against upper-tier Big Ten teams like Michigan, Maryland, Iowa and Indiana slip away due to poor fourth-quarter performances.

For Northwestern, a big reason it had a 6-0 start to the season — its best start since 2015-16 — was its ability to perform clutch down the stretch against teams like IU-Indy, DePaul and ACU. But against its toughest competition of the early season, it had Missouri on the ropes and could have pulled ahead, but the Tigers did the latter instead. If the Wildcats continue to have these mishaps against power-conference competition, late-game mistakes may become the storyline of the season, like they were a year ago.

The team is well aware of this.

“You’re playing for those fourth-quarter moments, and you want to fight through the tiredness, the fouls that may happen more in the fourth quarter, the energy,” Sullivan said at Big Ten Media Days in October. “I think that if we continue our first-quarter defensive energy into the fourth quarter, I think the game will turn out in our favor much more than we think.”

Of course, much went into both games aside from the fourth quarter. Sullivan continues to make an All-Big Ten case. Her 22 points on 52.6% shooting were somehow her most inefficient performance since Northwestern’s season-opener, but she followed up with a career-high 31 points on 60.9% shooting against the Tigers. With that performance, she becomes the first NU player to score a 30-piece since Veronica Burton dropped 32 on Clemson in December 2021. But as good as Sullivan is for the Wildcats, the storyline is about the players around her.

As defenses have made a habit of double-teaming Sullivan, who scores most of her points through her trusted mid-range shot, how Northwestern fares depends on its contributions from other players in other areas. Against ACU, plays from Lau and Casey Harter impacted the pace and gave Northwestern more transition scoring opportunities. While Lash joined Sullivan in double figures versus Missouri and made two critical threes, there just wasn’t a player or two with considerable secondary impact that could push NU over the edge.

Although Missouri was a missed opportunity for a resume win, Northwestern has a few more chances ahead in the coming week. It faces Kansas, one of just two teams to beat Missouri this season, on Tuesday, before opening up Big Ten play against an Ohio State squad that has blown out the Wildcats in the past two seasons. After relatively smooth sailing in the opening portion of its season, it only gets harder from here on out for Northwestern.

If the Wildcats don’t want to downward spiral in this next segment of their season, the fourth quarter will once again be a focal point. Their weekend in Florida proves it.