ROSEMONT, Ill.-Many basketball games have been described as a tale of two halves. But this one takes the cake.
Northwestern looked like the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first half while building a 49-27 lead over No. 2 Michigan State, only to turn into the Cleveland Browns in the second to give it all back in a 65-60 loss to the Spartans at Allstate Arena.
What’s more, the halves were almost mirror images of each other. The Wildcats blitzed Michigan State with a 20-2 run in the first half to forge a lead that grew to as many as 27. Then the Spartans turned the tables with a 24-0 run in the second half to regain the lead, while Northwestern missed an astounding 17 straight shots and scored just 11 points in the entire period.
In the end, the game wound up with an expected outcome. But getting there was an unexpected thrill ride that gave a raucous crowd that was more green than purple plenty to cheer about.
While there were plenty of surprises in this game, the biggest shock was that Northwestern, playing without star Bryant McIntosh and with just eight scholarship players, demolished the heavily-favored Spartans in the first period before the pendulum swung the other way and knocked the Wildcats out.
Vic Law, who finished with a game-high 21 points exemplified the feast-or-famine Wildcats. In the first half, he played perhaps the best basketball of his Northwestern career, notching 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-7 3-pointers, to go along with five assists. But in the second, he hit just one of eight shots and committed three turnovers.
Cassius Winston paced Michigan State with 17 points, 13 of them in the second half, including a pair of 3s during the Spartans’ tsunami of a comeback.
Here are our three pointers on the wildly entertaining loss that dropped Northwestern’s record to 15-13 overall and 6-9 in the Big Ten:
The Cats played their best half of basketball all season; perhaps in school history: That edge that head coach Chris Collins said has been missing all season? The Wildcats had it in spades in the first half. It’s difficult to capture how otherworldly the first 20 minutes were. The Wildcats had a 10-6 lead with 14:40 left when they went on the torrid 20-2 run that left the Spartans in their dust. Law scored eight of those points on two 3-pointers and a jumper, while Michigan State missed nine straight shots. The scores became almost comical: 30-8, 38-13 and 43-16 after Gavin Skelly completed a three-point play despite getting knocked to the ground while draining his shot. Everyone got into the act in the first half: Law poured in 18, Skelly 11, Anthony Gaines 8 and Scottie Lindsey 6. Even the seldom-used Isiah Brown came off the bench with 4. Northwestern shot 60 percent from the floor and an incredible 61.5 percent on 3s (8 for 13). The play that got the biggest roar was when Law leaped to tip and then steal an inbound pass by Miles Bridges before feeding Gaines on the run for a vicious dunk to put the Wildcats up 49-24 with 1:28 left. Northwestern’s fans may have been outnumbered, but they had a lot more to cheer about in the opening period.
As good as they were in the first half, the Cats were even worse in the second: Think about this. Northwestern made just three field goals in 26 attempts in the second half. That’s 11.3 percent. During Michigan State’s 24-0 run that turned a 53-32 Northwestern lead into a 56-53 MSU advantage, the Wildcats missed 17 straight shots on all manner of attempts, inside and out. Collins thought they got plenty of good looks; it’s just that nothing would go down. It didn’t help that NU turned the ball over six times to stoke the Spartans’ fire. Michigan State got hot in the second half, using 3-pointers from Joshua Langford and Matt McQuaid, and two by Winston, to blow by the Wildcats and get several “Go Green, Go White!” chants going in the stands. MSU shot 54.5 percent in the second half after hitting just 33.3 percent in the first. Foul trouble hampered Northwestern’s attempts to stop the bleeding, as both Pardon and Skelly picked up their fourth fouls early in the second half, forcing Collins to use his depleted bench more than he wanted. Skelly eventually fouled out, while Pardon and Barret Benson both finished with four apiece.
Even Izzo thought Northwestern should have won this one: This game will be remembered for Northwestern blowing a 27-point lead, but the Wildcats should also be recognized for regaining their mojo, even if it only lasted 20 minutes. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo came out and admitted that his team didn’t deserve the victory. “We needed the win, don’t get me wrong, but they deserved to win,” said Izzo, whose team is tied for first in the Big Ten and battling for the title. “They outplayed us for two-thirds of that game in every fashion: offensively, defensively, they got every loose ball. It was the Northwestern I sure thought we’d see this year. For whatever reasons, it hasn’t happened that way.” Collins, as expected, called the loss difficult but added, “I was really proud of my team. We dressed only eight scholarship guys today. We had guys playing out of position, coming off of a really tough loss the other night, playing the most talented team in the country.” Collins and Law both lauded the play of Gaines, a freshman who got the start in place of McIntosh and delivered a fearless 10-point, 5-rebound, 4-assist performance. “He’s a big part of our future,” said Collins.
