By DEREK FISHER
A basketball box score, like any other box score, can sometimes be misleading. Often, a game’s true essence or storyline remains untold among the collection of numbers that’s usually found on the back page.
And sometimes a box score is explicit in its description of the game.
The latter was the case Saturday night at Northwestern. Done in by too much Skylarr Shurn in transition and too much Kelly Hopkins down low, Northwestern fell in its home opener 59-46 to Kokomo, becoming the Lady Kats’ second victim of an early-season back-to-back weekend in the process.
Shurn and Hopkins led Kokomo with 17 and 16 points, respectively.
“Shurn got us for way too many points,” Northwestern coach Todd Miller said of Kokomo’s senior guard. “We corralled her a little bit in the second half, but she really gave us fits early on.”
Hopkins also had 10 boards to record a double-double.
“Kelly Hopkins put together a great performance,” said Kokomo coach Jason Snyder. “Paired up with her effort [Friday night] against Noblesville, it’s really a good weekend for her.”
The game’s early stages saw Kokomo establish a lead it would never relinquish. Spurred on by 20 first-half points by Shurn and Hopkins, as well as five from Kali Ackison, the Kats took a 33-17 lead into halftime.
“I liked our intensity early in the game,” Snyder said. “Our pressure got us a few turnovers that led to some points, but there were times when we definitely had to gut it up out there. It’s a good win in [Northwestern’s] gym, and [Northwestern] is a very good group.”
Kokomo held a lead of at least eight points at all times after intermission, but could have been pressured more had it not been for costly turnovers and spotty free-throw shooting by the Tigers. Northwestern gave up the ball 17 times on the game and shot just 12-of-20 from the charity stripe.
“We missed a lot of free throws,” Miller said. “You’re not going to beat a good 4A school doing that. Kokomo is a very aggressive, physical team. We prepared all preseason for that, and it was a goal of ours to match them in that department. I thought we played hard for 32 minutes [Saturday].
“It seemed like every time we got close and were about to dip into that lead, they’d hit a timely shot or we’d make a big turnover. We were on the brink a lot.”
Instrumental in the Kokomo win was senior forward Clarissa Woodard, who pulled down 10 rebounds to match Hopkins.
“Woodard had some huge rebounds for us, especially late,” Snyder said. “It was a physical game down low and it seemed like when the ball came off the rim, she was there. This is a good effort for us on a back-to-back weekend, the first two games of the year and just two weeks into the season.”
Rachel Lowden and Kylie Ballard scored 14 points apiece to lead Northwestern.
While Kokomo is off until Saturday when it travels to Logansport, the Tigers hop right back into action on Tuesday against Tipton.
“They’re not quite as big as Kokomo, so that’s good for us,” Miller said of his squad’s next game. “We had some bright spots [Saturday] night. We’ll keep working.”
