For most of the night, Northwestern didn’t look like a team desperate to stop a seven-game losing streak.

But the Wildcats did look like a team that had lost seven straight games.

Northwestern turned the ball over a season-high 20 times, hit just 20% of its three-pointers and never led in a disappointing 64-56 loss to Rutgers at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

It was the eighth straight loss for the Wildcats, who haven’t tasted victory since beating Ohio State on Dec. 26.

Despite playing for the first time in a week and on its home floor, the Wildcats didn’t look ready to play early and fell behind by 20 points in the first half. They rallied to cut the lead to five, 34-29, by halftime.

But Northwestern couldn’t continue its momentum in the second period, falling behind by 15. Once again, they cut the Scarlet Knights’ advantage to five, this time with less than three minutes to go, but couldn’t get any closer as the Knights pulled away.

Miller Kopp scored 15 points to lead Northwestern, while Chase Audige and Ryan Young added 14 apiece. Pete Nance had a game-high nine rebounds.

Rutgers was led by Jacob Young’s 19 points, and Ron Harper Jr. scored all of his 13 points in the second half.

Here are our takeaways from the loss that dropped Northwestern’s record to 6-9 overall and 3-8 in Big Ten play:

The Cats weren’t ready to play at the tip: Northwestern looked to be on the verge of getting run out of its own building in the first half.

The Wildcats came out and hit one of their first five shots to fall behind 10-2 at the first media timeout. Northwestern turned the ball over eight times in the first 11 minutes as Rutgers kept increasing its lead while shooting better than 60% from the floor.

The Knights’ advantage ballooned to 20 points, 31-11, after a Jacob Young three-pointer with 8:50 left in the half. At that point, Rutgers appeared to be on its way to embarrassing the Wildcats.

An Audige dunk changed the game: Audige, who was visibly ticked off after drawing an early technical foul, then flipped a switch in the game when he stole the ball from Geo Baker and slammed home a fast-break dunk with 7:29 left.

From that point on, it was all Northwestern, as the Wildcats mounted a 13-0 run. Kopp hit a three-pointer, then finished off a drive to the basket with a sensational, twisting layup. Ryan Young turned in an old-fashioned three-point play, and Audige followed with a triple from the wing.

Rutgers, meanwhile, turned the ball over six times in the next three and a half minutes. The Knights didn’t score another basket for the rest of the half, managing just three free throws as their lead shrunk from 20 points to just five at the break.

Neither team took care of the basketball: This was a sloppy game from beginning to end as the teams combined for 40 turnovers, or one every minute.

Northwestern set its season high in turnovers with its 17th with five minutes to play and wound up with 20 on the night. Boo Buie, who scored just two points, and Kopp “led” the Wildcats with five turnovers each. Audige had four.

Rutgers wasn’t any better, committing 11 of its 20 turnovers in the first half. Baker had the most miscues for the Scarlet Knights, with five.

Even though both teams had 20 turnovers, Rutgers held a decided edge in points off of turnovers, 19-11.

Once again, the 3s weren’t falling for the Cats: Northwestern hit just four of 20 shots from beyond the arc for the game.

Kopp, the Wildcats’ best shooter, hit just one of six triples and had two crucial misses in the second half when they were getting to within striking distance. Nance went 0-for-4.

Rutgers, however, wasn’t much better, draining just five of 22 shots from long distance, or 23%.

Amazingly, neither team hit a single three-pointer in the second half. Northwestern went 0-for-8 from behind the line, while Rutgers went 0-for-9.

This was the seventh time during Northwestern’s eight-game losing streak that the Wildcats sank 30% or fewer of their three-pointers.

Beran’s slump continues: Robbie Beran played maybe the quietest game of his career against the Scarlet Knights.

The starting power forward played just 11 minutes. Not only was he shut out of the scoring sheet, but he had zeroes across the board: no points, shots, rebounds, assists, blocks or steals. All he had to show for his effort was three personal fouls and one turnover. His plus/minus rating was -13, worse than anyone but Buie’s -24.

Beran has scored a total of 11 points in the last five games and has been held scoreless twice.