By Larry Peterson
Staff writer
The Northwestern Wildcats men’s basketball team had a challenging week of Big Ten competition. After losing a 60-50 decision at home to 13th ranked Wisconsin, Wednesday, Jan. 13, the Wildcats rebounded with a 66-52 upset victory over the No. 7 ranked Purdue Boilermakers, Saturday, Jan. 16 at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, IL.
The two games were very similar, but the results were very different. Northwestern played Wisconsin on even terms for 35 minutes, but a letdown in the final five minutes resulted in the Wisconsin victory.
The Purdue game was a physical nip-and-tuck battle in the first half. The Boilermakers built a quick five-point lead. Northwestern fought back to take an eight-point advantage and Purdue rallied in the final five minutes to cut the margin to one point, and the Wildcats led 26-25 at the halftime break.
The second half was more of the same. The score was tied four times and the lead changed five times. The Wildcats were determined to avoid a repeat of the Wisconsin game.
At the 10-minute mark of the second half, the teams were tied at 44. Northwestern went ahead 51-50 with seven minutes left in the game and never trailed after that. The ’Cats lead was one-to-three points for the next five minutes.
There was no letdown by Northwestern in the final five minutes. They drove hard to the basket and crashed the boards at both ends of the floor, and the final tally showed the Wildcats had a 42-23 rebounding edge.
In an effort to stop the Wildcats surge, Purdue’s 6-11 center JaJuan Johnson fouled out with 3:49 left in the game, and their leading scorer, E’Twaun Moore, picked up his fifth foul with 1:02 remaining.
Freshman Drew Crawford, who was held to four points in the first half, came through with 11 points in the second half, seven coming in the last two minutes of the game.
Northwestern coach Bill Carmody commented on Crawford’s outstanding effort.
“After awhile, 15 or 16 games, you’re not like a freshman anymore. He’s willing to take the big shot,” Carmody said.
Purdue head coach Matt Painter agreed with Carmody.
“With two minutes left, [Crawford]made a three-pointer. On his next trip down the court, he converted a three-point play to extend Northwestern’s lead to 64-57 with 1:33 left in the game. That was probably the two biggest plays of the game,” Painter said.
Crawford finished with 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists, but he didn’t do it alone. It was a total team effort. Michael Thompson had a team-high 20 points and Luka Mirkovic contributed 16 points and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds, It was the best game of Murkovic’s career.
E’Twaun Moore was the high scorer for the Boilermakers, with 24 points. Robbie Hummel tossed in 20 point and hauled in six rebounds.
After starting the season with 14 straight wins, Purdue has suffered three-straight losses to Wisconsin, Ohio State and Northwestern.
They were battling Michigan State for first place in the Big Ten, but are now in a three-way tie for seventh place with Northwestern and Indidana. Purdue is 2-3 in the conference and 14-3 overall. They were ranked seventh in the AP Poll, but that could change in the next poll.
The Wildcats improved to 2-3 in the Big Ten and 13-4 overall.
Painter is probably the most gracious loser to face the media after a tough loss. He made no excuses.
“We have been beaten by Big Ten teams that have played harder and outrebounded us. We were beaten by a better team today. Crawford stepped up and Mike Thompson is a great lead guard, not necessarily a point guard. He finds the open man, can hit the three and will drive when given the slightest opportunity. Bill Carmody has done a great job here. I’m really impressed.
“We had guys that didn’t play hard. We were outfought and we had some bad fouls. We have to quit fouling and play smarter,” Painter said.
Carmody was a very gracious winner.
“That was a real good college basketball game. I liked our rebounding. Luka did a real good job. We couldn’t finish against Wisconsin, but we did tonight.
“We had good fan support, which we haven’t had in the past. You would be surprised how much that helps. I hope they keep it up,” Carmody said.
Purdue will try to break the losing streak when they play Illinois in Champaign, IL, January 19. They return home for three Big Ten games: Michigan, January 23; Wisconsin, January 28; and Penn State, January 31.
The Wildcats will play at Ohio State, Tuesday, Jan. 19 before returning home to take on inter-state rival Illinois Saturday, Jan. 23.