EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern pulled out a win by the skin of their teeth over Montana State, 72-69, to stay undefeated on their home floor early in the season.

The Wildcats were led by 22 points from junior forward Nick Martinelli, but the story of the game was the sensational return by senior captain Brooks Barnhizer.

Barnhizer, playing his first game of the year after a summer foot injury, stuffed the stat sheet with 20 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and a block in 28 minutes, as he battled some foul trouble.

"[Barnhizer is] such a fierce competitor...," Collins said. "He's the leader of this team and he impacts the game so many ways."

Together on the court for the first time this season, Barnhizer and Martinelli form a formidable one-two punch.

"I told our guys in the locker room, they're playing with two of the best, most unique players in the country," head coach Chris Collins said. "We need to do a better job playing off those guys... We have to get complementary scoring and shooting."

The game came down to the wire, tied with 47 seconds left, when Barnhizer put his finishing touch on the contest with a deft lob to center Matt Nicholson for a thunderous jam that gave the Wildcats the lead for good.

Montana State got a good look with stocky, 6-foot-7, 265-pound forward Brandon Walker, who posted up Ty Berry with a chance to tie. But Berry deftly stole the ball on Walker's spin move, and free throws from Jalen Leach and Justin Mullins iced the game down the stretch.

"We went to a small lineup to switch every screen so we can get to the 3-point line," Collins said. "Ty got their big guy, he tried to back him down, and he made a really heads-up play as a senior to pull the chair and get the steal. It was big time."

Collins was clear that while many of the starters are experienced in the program, it will still take time to gel, especially with Barnhizer returning to the lineup.

"The [starting] group on the court tonight has maybe had three practices together the whole year," Collins said. "With this November slate, I knew with everything we dealt with that it would be a work in progress. To be able to grind out some of these wins when we're figuring it out is great."

Here are our takeaways from the second straight too-close-for-comfort win for the Wildcats, who are now 4-1.

Barnhizer and Martinelli aren't mutually exclusive: There were some champagne concerns that with Martinelli bursting onto the scene as a 20+ points-per-game scorer, his style might clash with his returning roommate Martinelli's. No such worries. The pair scored more than half the team's points and were overjoyed to be back on the same court after Barnhizer missed the first four games of the season.

"It's something I've been praying for awhile," Martinelli said. "It felt great to see him out there running through people. It's special and it's winning basketball."

"We aren't the most athletic kids out there...," Barnhizer added. "We have a funkier game so it's weird for teams. If they send two at me, it'll be his night, if they send two at him, it'll be my night...excited to see what we can accomplish this year."

Barnhizer is a basketball junkie and his relief to be back on the court was apparent, even joking about a play where he grabbed at his hamstring after missing a layup.

"I just have to get used to playing again," he said. "I think I just got dead leg when I smoked that layup. It's a privilege to grab my hamstring, I missed grabbing my hamstring when I got tired."

Montana State may be a low-major program from the Big Sky conference, but the Bobcats have made the last three NCAA Tournaments. Barnhizer shook off the rust almost immediately. He had a couple early snafus with a travel and a shot in the paint that was summarily swatted, and he did pick up four fouls that led to just 11 second-half minutes. But he was otherwise sensational. He used his physicality to dictate terms on offense again and again, playing wise and efficient basketball and finishing 9-for-15 from the floor and 1-for-2 from 3, even on a night when the refs seemed to often swallow their whistles around the rim.

The Wildcats should expect All-Big Ten honors for both players should they keep this up throughout the season.

Northwestern needs more complementary scoring: Barnhizer and Martinelli were the only players to make more than three field goals in this game and took 37 of the Wildcats' 64 shots.

Add in Leach and Berry, and no other player took more than three shots. There were just six points off the bench with three points from Mullins and three points from Angelo Ciaravino.

"I have to find a way as a coach to help those guys out, we need complementary scoring," Collins said. "Those guys, we need them to have confidence on the offensive end of the floor. All four of those guys off the bench are guys that should be able to give you some offense.

"They have scoring mentalities, they have their whole life, and we have to get that out of them... We're figuring things out on the fly, we didn't have this group [together] all summer or all fall, so we're figuring it out as we play good teams."

Collins leaned heavily on his veterans at the expense of freshman guards Ciaravino and KJ Windham, who had started in Barnhizer's place. The pair played just eight minutes apiece. Collins signaled that this came from feel of the game and wanting to rely on experienced players like Barnhizer, Berry and Leach, and wouldn't be a permanent change.

"We were losing and felt like the group we had, it was a possession game, I went with my vets," Collins said. "But those nine guys that played are all going to play [this season]. I'd like for [Windham] and Angelo to get more than eight, but tonight that's what the game entailed... As they improve, we also have to win.

"With Brooks back, some of their minutes will be cut into. But they'll determine that... I always tell them, if you're playing well and the team's playing well, you're going to stay in."

Martinelli and Barnhizer can use their physicality and funk to dominate against a smaller team like Montana State, and the Wildcats are still, for all their warts, sitting at 4-1 with a quality road loss. But if they want to realize their potential they will need much more scoring off the bench to give the duo the breathing room they need when Big Ten teams throw the kitchen sink at them.

Wildcats near even on turnovers in second straight game: After playing dead-even against Eastern Illinois, with 15 turnovers a piece, Northwestern had a one-turnover advantage this game. That's a far cry from doubling up UIC two games ago, as well as from the program's standard the last couple of seasons.

"Where we're trying to go, we can't be one-trick ponies," Barnhizer said. "That's kind of our calling card, our formula. We're supposed to be a team that has a defensive mindset."

The Wildcats also allowed too many points in the paint in the first half, something the staff reminded the players of at the break.

"We had maybe a little intensity to our voices to let them know that this team is a 3-point shooting team and they had 20 points in the paint," Collins said. "To our guys credit, they responded. That's what veteran guys do."

Similar to the bench scoring, the Wildcats were able to overcome their deficiencies against a tough but lower-league non-conference foe. If they want to make a program record third-straight NCAA Tournament, they need to extend the sporadic defensive intensity throughout the entire game.