Cats better, but not good enough
ROSEMONT, Ill.-Northwestern did a lot of good things against No. 22 Ohio State on Wednesday night at Allstate Arena. The Wildcats started fast, found their offense in the second half and mounted a furious rally to cut the lead to three points in the closing seconds.
But it wasn’t enough to knock off the conference co-leader Buckeyes, who earned a tougher-than-expected 71-65 win over Northwestern.
Still, coming off of a 20-point drubbing at Indiana where they scored just 46 points, the Wildcats showed signs of life, even if they suffered their second straight loss and fourth in the last five games.
One game after failing to put a single player in double figures, Northwestern had four that scored 10 or more against Ohio State. Vic Law scored 14 points to lead the way, while Scottie Lindsey added 13, Gavin Skelly 11 and Bryant McIntosh and Anthony Gaines 10 each.
Ohio State’s Keita Bates-Diop, the Big Ten’s leading scorer, was bottled up by Northwestern’s 2-3 matchup zone defense, which limited him to just 10 points, half of his season average. But Micah Potter picked up the slack with 13 points, and Jae’Sean Tate and C.J. Jackson added 12 apiece.
Here are our three pointers on the loss that drops Northwestern’s record to 11-9 overall and 2-5 in Big Ten play.
The Cats started fast, but then went flat: Northwestern came out hot, for a change. The Wildcats hit their first three shots of the game, including 3-pointers from Skelly and Law. They jumped out to an 8-2 lead – not bad for a team that scored just 3 points at the 10-minute mark on Sunday against Indiana. But then, Northwestern suffered another one of its scoring droughts to let the Buckeyes take control. The Wildcats went 3:09 without scoring a point and committed three turnovers as Ohio State scored 10 straight points to take the lead. The Buckeyes’ run eventually grew to 17-2 on their way to building a 33-25 halftime edge. It was the same story against Indiana, when long scoreless streaks in each half did the Wildcats in.
NU’s offense woke up in the second half: The Wildcats’ long-struggling offense finally found its groove in the second half, when they put up a surprising 40 points – just six less than they scored in the entire game against Indiana. The Wildcats shot 51.6 percent, turned the ball over just three times and had 10 assists on their 16 baskets in the second half. McIntosh scored 10 points in the last 20 minutes after getting shut out in the first. The Wildcats shaved a 15-point OSU lead down to just one possession after Lindsey hit a triple to make it 68-65 with 43 seconds left. But the Wildcats could get no closer as Law missed an open 3 that would’ve cut it to 2 with 14 ticks left. Another 3-pointer or two – the Wildcats hit just 6 of 18 in the second half – and Northwestern could’ve had a shot of pulling off an upset over the Buckeyes (16-4, 7-0 Big Ten).
Skelly and Gaines were unsung heroes: Skelly, who started in place of an injured Aaron Falzon, was the spark for Northwestern early in the game. He scored 7 points in the first five minutes with an opening 3-pointer, a drive to the rim and a short turnaround jumper. He scored 9 points in all in the first half on 4-of-7 shooting. In the second half, Gaines came out of nowhere to score 10 of his 11 points. Most incredibly, Gaines scored six of those points on two 3-pointers – that’s double the number of 3s he scored all season as he was just 1 for 14 from beyond the arc coming into the contest. Gaines also came up with three steals to give the NU offense some much-needed fast-break opportunities.