Road games in the Big Ten aren’t easy. Wednesday night’s game at Minnesota proved it.

Northwestern gutted out a 77-69 comeback win over Minnesota by outscoring the Gophers 43-29 in the second half. It was the second straight victory for the Wildcats, who also earned a season sweep over Minnesota.

Bryant McIntosh and Vic Law scored 18 points apiece to lead the Wildcats, while Scottie Lindsey scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half and Dererk Pardon tallied 10. Law also led NU with five assists and a game-high 13 rebounds.

Nate Mason tore up Northwestern’s 2-3 matchup zone defense with 25 points and nine assists to lead Minnesota. Amir Coffey, who did not play in Northwestern’s 83-60 blitz of the Gophers on Jan. 10, finished with 15 points.

Here are our three pointers on the win that raised Northwestern’s record to 13-9 and 4-5 in the Big Ten:

Northwestern survived the first half: The Wildcats withstood a virtuoso performance by Mason in the first half. The Gophers point guard hit 6 of 8 shots for 17 points and had six assists in the opening half. He was exploiting the zone defense, shooting over the top of it (he hit 3 of 4 3-pointers), getting inside or finding an open shooter. He wasn’t the only Gopher red-hot from beyond the arc, either, as they hit 6 of 10 3-pointers as a team. Northwestern had gotten off to a good start, but three turnovers in four possessions in the middle of the half enabled Minnesota to go on an 11-2 run to take the lead they would carry until halfway through the second.

The Wildcats buckled down in the second: Northwestern trailed 40-34 at the half but turned up the heat on both ends of the floor to chip away at the lead. The Wildcats hit 53.8 percent of their shots in the second half as they attacked the rim relentlessly. Defensively, Northwestern limited Minnesota to just 9-of-29 shooting (31 percent) as the zone sealed off the paint and forced the Gophers into difficult shots. Minnesota big man Jordan Murphy scored just four points on 1-of-4 shooting. The Wildcats came back from an 8-point deficit to take a 56-54 lead with 10:55 left. Then, Northwestern’s key players stepped up: Pardon had a big putback to push the lead to 5, then Lindsey hit a difficult left-handed lay-in to increase it to 7.

Free throws put the game away: It was fitting that Northwestern iced the game at the free-throw line because the team’s ability to draw fouls was crucial to the win. The Wildcats hit 7 of 8 free throws down the stretch: two by Aaron Falzon, one by McIntosh, two by Lindsey and two by Law. In all, Northwestern got to the line 23 times and made 18, while Minnesota shot just 16 and made 10. It was an indicator of the Wildcats’ aggressiveness on the offensive end: they didn’t settle for jump shots but instead drove to the rim. Falzon had one of the most efficient offensive performances a player can have, scoring 8 points without attempting a field goal (they were all free throws).