Heading into today’s matchup at Northwestern, Purdue women’s basketball coach Katie Gearlds understands how important it is for her Boilermakers to come out and play hard.
Northwestern, much like Purdue, has struggled this season and enters having lost six of its last eight and is 8-15 overall, 3-9. Purdue, on the other hand, is winless on the road in the Big Ten and enters 10-13, 3-9 after falling 95-62 against Indiana Sunday.
“Obviously a struggle on the road. We talked about it — just compete. Throw all of it out the window and just play really hard. If we don’t play hard, Northwestern will beat us. Our league is tough. We are completely different team at home. Lot of soul searching internally on how I can help lift this team on the road. I hope we come out as a hungry basketball team and see if we can compete hard,” Gearlds said.
One bright spot this season for the Purdue women’s basketball team has been the play of freshman Mary Ashley Stevenson, who scored 16 points against Indiana. She was named Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Week and the USBWA Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Week. Stevenson is averaging 10.8 points per game in Big Ten games and is pulling down 5.1 rebounds per game.
Gearlds said Stevenson is “all blue collar.”
“I think she is who we thought she would be during recruiting. Blue collar, working hard to get better, hard nosed. I don’t think anyone does workouts with our staff more than Mary Ashley. She’s worked hard and gotten better. Talk about a tough kid. Breaks her nose and has a great game against Ohio State. Can’t say enough about who she is and how tough the young woman is. She works tail off and it’s a testament to how she has been raised,” Gearlds said of her freshman.
As for Northwestern, Gearlds said her team has to come out and play hard to have a chance to pull the road win, noting the Wildcats have players who can make shots.
“They all shoot the three pretty well. Lot of teams don’t have kids that like the mid-range game. They have several players that live in the mid-range game. We have to be able to rebound the basketball. We have to keep them off the offensive glass, play hard and knock down shots,” Gearlds said.
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