Northwestern just hit a major pothole on the road it hopes will lead to the school’s first-even NCAA tournament berth.

The Wildcats started their game against Minnesota red-hot from the field, but their shooting in the second half was as cold as the single-digit temperatures outside as the Gophers rallied for a 70-66 win at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Northwestern staked itself to a 39-35 lead at the half and had its largest lead of the game after Scottie Lindsey threw down a vicious dunk on a breakaway to make it 47-40 with 13:45 to go. But Minnesota responded with a 10-0 run to retake the lead and never looked back as the Wildcats made just 1 of 15 3-pointers in the second half.

It’s the second straight Big Ten loss for a Wildcats team that was coming coming off of a nine-game winning streak. The Gophers, meanwhile, captured their second straight road win in league play.

This loss is especially costly to Northwestern as the favorite in its conference home opener. Now, head coach Chris Collins said, the Wildcats will have to win an unexpected game on the road to even things out in the ledger.

Here are our three pointers:

Northwestern came out smoking…: The Wildcats couldn’t miss early in the game. Literally. NU hit its first six shots from the field as Vic Law hit two 3-pointers and Bryant McIntosh and Jordan Ash canned one apiece. The problem was that Minnesota nearly matched the Wildcats, drilling 7 of its first 8 shots from the floor, meaning that the two teams combined to miss just one of their 14 shots combined. McIntosh, coming off of a disastrous 3-for-14 shooting performance at Michigan State, led the Wildcats with 14 points in the half, including 6 of the team’s last 8, on 5-for-9 shooting. In all, Northwestern hit 13 of 25 shots in the first half, including 5 of 11 from beyond the arc. They added 8 of 9 free throws.

…and then flamed out in the second half: The Wildcats’ offense simply abandoned them in the second half as they hit just 1 of 15 (6.7 percent) of their 3-pointers and 11 of 38 (28.9) of their shots overall. The galling thing is that, as Collins said, “I thought we got a lot of really good looks.” McIntosh, Gavin Skelly (0 for 5 on 3s in the second half) and Lindsey (0 for 5) all missed wide-open looks at triples. Lindsey and Law, the team’s leading scorers, shot a combined 3 for 15 (20 percent) from the floor in the second half and 8 for 24 (33.3) for the game. McIntosh, who scored 7 of his game-high 21 points after the break, thought that fatigue played a role in the team’s lack of execution, while Dererk Pardon had a more basic explanation: “We just didn’t make open shots. It’s that simple,” he said.

Pardon had an impressive return: Northwestern’s sophomore center returned after being sidelined for six weeks with a broken hand, but if there were any signs of rust, they sure weren’t evident. Pardon played 32 minutes in all and contributed 9 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, a block and a steal. He scored the first two baskets of the second half on a jumper from the top of key and a left-handed hook in the lane. He then came back with a righty hook a few minutes later. As usual, he set screens at the top of the key, ran the floor, and came up with a monster dunk on a putback off of a Lindsey miss. “I thought Pardon had some great moves in the post,” said Collins. “He gave us some great minutes.”