Northwestern made some history on Saturday at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
The Wildcats rallied to squeak by No. 23 Ohio State, 71-70, and improve to 3-0 in Big Ten play. The last time that happened was in 1967-68, when Lyndon B. Johnson was in the White House and the United States was fighting the Vietnam War.
Miller Kopp scored 23 points to lead the Wildcats, who closed out another tight game with some big plays down the stretch by Chase Audige and Boo Buie. Buie scored 14 points and led Northwestern with five assists, while Audige had 5 of his 7 points in the last four minutes.
Northwestern trailed by as many as 7 points in the second half and took its first lead of the period with less than two minutes remaining.
Ohio State was led by E.J. Lidell’s 15 points and Kyle Young’s 14. Those players also led the Buckeyes with eight rebounds each.
Here are our takeaways from the victory that left Northwestern with a record of 6-1 overall and should earn then an AP Top 25 ranking this week:
The Cats closed it out again: This Northwestern team is different in a lot of ways from recent teams. The most obvious aspect may be the Wildcats’ ability to close out games – something that’s been sorely missing in years past.
The Wildcats trailed by 5 points when Pete Nance came up with a steal and fed Audige for a fast-break dunk. Audige later blocked a shot that led to a Kopp bucket that cut Ohio State’s lead to 66-65 with 2:40 left.
That’s when Audige – whose late-game heroics helped Northwestern beat Indiana on Wednesday night – hit his biggest shot, a 3-pointer from the wing, to give the Cats their first lead of the second half with just 1:48 left in the game. Audige made just 2 of 8 shots in the game, but he definitely made them count.
Young hit a hook in the lane to tie the game for Ohio State, but Buie came back down and hit the dagger, a long 3-pointer off of a jab step, to make it 71-68 with 1:04 remaining. Young hit two free throws for the Buckeyes to make it a 1-point game, and Buie missed a free throw to leave the door open for the Buckeyes. But Liddell’s half-court heave fell far short at the buzzer to give the Wildcats the win.
Slow start with small lineup: With Robbie Beran starting the game on the bench with a sore ankle, head coach Chris Collins made Anthony Gaines a starter and went with a three-guard lineup. It certainly didn’t go well early.
Northwestern missed its first six shots from the floor to fall behind 8-0. Ohio State, meanwhile, went inside to Liddell and Young against the smaller Wildcat lineup and drained its first four shots from the floor.
The Wildcats didn’t get on the scoreboard until Kopp it a 3-pointer at the 16:14 mark.
Kopp carried the load offensively: Northwestern countered that slow start with a 14-2 run fueled by a scorching-hot Kopp.
NU’s top scorer poured in 12 of the Wildcats’ 14 points. His barrage included two 3s, a layup and a pair of jumpers. By the close of the half, Kopp had hit 6 of 10 shots and tallied 14 points as the Wildcats and Buckeyes went to the locker room tied at 34.
Kopp finished the game with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting, including 3 of 4 from beyond the arc. He also had two rebounds and three assists.
Points off turnovers were key for the Cats: Ohio State only turned the ball over 10 times in the game, but the Wildcats made them pay by turning them into 20 points.
In the first half, Northwestern converted eight Buckeye turnovers into a 16-0 edge in points off of TOs. The Buckeyes did a better job taking care of the ball in the second half, but Northwestern still wound up with a 20-4 edge in points off of turnovers for the game.
Those points – many of them off of fast breaks – helped Northwestern offset a sizable rebounding deficit. Ohio State outrebounded Northwestern 40-26 and had a 17-2 edge in second-half points off of 11 offensive boards.
As a whole, Northwestern assisted on 24 of its 28 baskets in the game.
Young gave NU a boost off the bench: Center Ryan Young came off the bench to give the Wildcats some punch in the paint. He scored 8 points on 4-of-6 shooting and added a team-high 7 rebounds.
Young also had three assists and turned the ball over twice in his 19 minutes. He finished with a +/- of 9 points, the second-best mark on the team, behind Beran.
Beran’s ankle appeared to be fine, but he got into foul trouble in the second half and fouled out with 47 seconds left. He scored just 2 points but finished with three rebounds, four assists and a block.
