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Struggling women's cagers hope once-hot Wildcats, suddenly-hot Spartans go cold

For a while, it looked like Northwestern might have two dream seasons in one year.

After its football team shocked the nation by winning the Big Ten Championship and finishing 10-2 for the season, the women's basketball team tried to follow suit by starting out 15-1 and 5-0 in the conference.

While the gridiron Wildcats climbed the polls with wins in front of Touchdown Jesus and in The Big House, the Lady Wildcats used their home floor of Welsh-Ryan Arena to knock off then-No. 4 Penn State, No. 16 Kansas and No. 25 DePaul.

But shortly after the purple sea closed on top of Northwestern in the Rose Bowl, it also swept away the hopes of its women's basketball team.

Since New Year's Day, the Wildcats (5-8 Big Ten, 16-9 overall) have lost eight straight conference games, with their only relief coming in an easy non-conference win at Illinois-Chicago Feb. 6.

Tonight they hope to break their slump when they take the floor against a struggling Michigan team (1-11, 7-15) at 7:30 p.m. at Crisler Arena.

"We were a little surprised at (Northwestern's) early pace since we played them last year and beat them," Michigan coach Trish Roberts said.

The Wildcats, who were picked to finish in the middle of the conference in the coach's preseason poll, handily won their first meeting with the Wolverines Jan. 7 in Evanston, 88-65.

"Their big players ran the floor well and got a lot of layups on our girls," Roberts said.

But Roberts hasn't seen Northwestern play with the same aggressiveness during its slump.

"They have not played with that intensity lately," she said. "This is a good time for us to be playing them."

The Wildcats still have four starters averaging double digits in scoring, though. Senior guard Michele Ratay leads the team, averaging 17.4 points per game. Junior forward Katrina Hannaford is chips in 17 points and 7.4 rebounds per contest.

Roberts said Michigan will play a zone defense against Northwestern since the Wildcats have struggled against it recently. In the Jan. 7 loss, the Wolverines played man-to-man, defensively.

But Roberts hasn't figured out what lineup she wants to put on the floor. Sophomores Pollyanna Johns, Akisha Franklin and Jennifer Kiefer should start, while senior Jennifer Brzezinski and juniors Molly Murray, Amy Johnson, Catherine DiGiacinto and Silver Shellman will compete for the two remaining starting positions.

Michigan's weekend continues Sunday when it hosts Michigan State (6-6, 14-8) at noon.

The Wolverines will have a score to settle against the Spartans for the heartbreaking 66-65 loss Jan. 5 in East Lansing.

Michigan State didn't play like a .500 team last weekend, however, when it gave first-place Iowa (11-1, 20-2) a run for its money in a 71-65 loss and handed second-place Wisconsin (10-2, 18-4) its second conference loss.

"(Michigan State) started out slow, but with each game they have improved," Roberts said.

But the Spartans don't have a true center in their starting five, a flaw which Michigan hopes the 6-foot-3 Johns can exploit.

The Wolverines will switch back to man-to-man defense for Sunday's game in hopes of containing Spartan point guard Tamika Matlock, who Roberts called, "the key to their game."

With four games remaining, Michigan is still trying to match its conference win total from last year when it finished 3-13 in the Big Ten.

"We definitely don't want to finish lower than last year," Roberts said. "We think our chances of winning (this weekend) are great."