Another first for Northwestern: the B1G semis
This has been a season of firsts for Northwestern, and the Wildcats added a couple more to their list on Friday night.
For the first time in history, Northwestern won a second game in the Big Ten tournament. As a result, the Wildcats are in the semifinals of the conference tourney for the first time, too.
Sixth-seeded Northwestern used scoring runs in each half to post a 72-64 win over No. 3-seed Maryland on a virtual Terrapin home floor in Washington D.C. The Wildcats advanced to take on second-seeded Wisconsin on Saturday.
Vic Law and Scottie Lindsey scored 17 points apiece and Bryant McIntosh added 16 to lead the Wildcats, who had been 0-10 all-time in Big Ten tournament quarterfinal games. Dererk Pardon scored just 4 points but led the team with 8 rebounds.
Melo Trimble, who had 32 points the first time the teams met, scored 20 this time to lead all scorers, along with a team-high 6 rebounds. Kevin Huerter had a breakout game, scoring 12 of his 19 points in the first half.
Here are our three pointers on the victory that extended Northwestern’s school record with its 23rd win of the year:
Northwestern was off and running again: This Wildcat team knows how to go on scoring runs. After last night’s record-setting 31-0 run in a win over Rutgers, they went on two big ones to clinch a victory over the Terrapins. NU went on a 20-4 run in the first half fueled by two straight 3-pointers by Law and 8-of-9 shooting. Maryland answered that run with an 18-6 blitz of its own to take a 36-34 lead into halftime. The Wildcats got off to a slow start in the second half, taking 4:04 to register their first basket, a triple by McIntosh. But once they got rolling, they reeled off a 20-2 scoring streak, once again led by Lindsey and Law. They also added a mini 7-0 run down the stretch to put the game away.
The Wildcats offense was clicking on almost all cylinders: Northwestern shot the ball extremely well all night, hitting 55.3 percent of its shots from the floor. The Wildcats also had their long-distance stroke going, hitting 47 percent (7 of 15) of their 3-pointers, as Law and McIntosh both hit both of their attempts from beyond the arc. The one area that hurt the Wildcats, however, was turnovers. Northwestern turned the ball over 16 times, six more than its average on the season. Those turnovers were costly, as Maryland was able to rack up a lot of easy transition baskets and score 32 points in the paint. Where this Northwestern team has grown the most is in crunch time. The game was tied at 46 with 12:17 left and the Wildcats outscored the Terrapins 26-18 the rest of the way. And, unlike in previous years or even earlier this season, Northwestern had no problem with the press, getting the ball up the floor with relative ease.
Looking ahead: Northwestern stunned Wisconsin in Madison, 66-59, on Jan. 12 in the teams’ only meeting this season. That was looked upon as perhaps the biggest win in Northwestern history – until the Michigan game on March 1, that is. McIntosh carried the Wildcats with 25 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists in that one, while the defense did a tremendous job doubling Ethan Happ, limiting him to 3-of-8 shooting and 9 points, and forcing him into 4 turnovers. However, Wisconsin’s Bronson Koenig was hobbled in that game and scored just 2 points; he is fully healthy now. Wisconsin, which lost three of four to close the regular season, beat Indiana 70-60 on Friday as five Badgers scored in double figures and Happ racked up 14 points and 12 rebounds.