This one just flat-out hurt.
On a night when nothing seemed to be go its way, Northwestern came back from a 10-point second-half deficit to take a one-point lead with 7.1 seconds left only to see Tadric Jackson hit a buzzer-beating layup to give Georgia Tech a 52-51 win Monday night in an Big Ten-ACC Challenge game.
The fact that it was the Yellow Jackets’ first field goal in more than eight minutes only added salt to the wound.
Northwestern battled through foul trouble (17 as a team) and poor shooting (21.7 percent on 3s) to outscore Georgia Tech 29-24 in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the team’s third defeat in five games. The Wildcats are now 0-3 against Power Six conference opponents, with losses to Creighton, Texas Tech and Georgia Tech.
Bryant McIntosh led the way for Northwestern with a game-high 18 points and five assists, while Vic Law scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half. Dererk Pardon had 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Georgia Tech got 13 points and six rebounds from Ben Lammers, who battled foul trouble all night. Curtis Haywood II had 11 points and Jackson 10 to round out the Yellow Jackets in double figures.
Here are our three pointers for a loss that drops Northwestern to 4-3 on the season.
Lindsey was a no-show: Northwestern leading scorer Scottie Lindsey had a game to forget in Atlanta. Averaging 17.8 points per game coming in, Lindsey was blanked, registering zero points, zero rebounds, one block, two turnovers and three fouls. He went 0-for-8 from the floor and 0-for-5 from long distance and didn’t get to the free-throw line. The Wildcats are still looking for another guard they can depend on off the bench, so not getting any offensive contributions from their leading scorer was a devastating blow to a team struggling to find rhythm offensively. Once again, Northwestern’s bench came up short in this one, scoring just five combined points in a combined 51 minutes of action.
The lid was on the basket early: The Wildcats were ice cold to start the game. They hit just one of their first 11 shots from the floor and had just two points at the under-12 timeout. Northwestern was getting good looks; the ball just wasn’t going down. A McIntosh 3-pointer followed by a Gavin Skelly 3-point play got the Wildcats going, but they remained in a funk for most of the first half on the offensive end. Northwestern shot just 9-for-33 from the floor (27.3 percent) in the first half and a woeful 2-for-14 on 3s (14.3). They also had just two assists as a team, an indicator of a stagnant offense. Lindsey and Law combined to shoot 1-for-8 and score two points, so all-in-all the Wildcats were lucky to be down just 28-22 at the half.
The Cats made a late charge: Northwestern was down 47-37 with about six minutes left before going on a 12-0 run to take the lead. Of all things, it was a 3-pointer by Jordan Ash – his first of the season – that sparked the Wildcats. Pardon had a dunk and layup sandwiched around a Georgia Tech turnover, and then McIntosh hit two straight baskets, a runner high off the glass and a floater in the lane, to give the Wildcats a 49-47 lead, their first of the second half. Later, trailing 50-49 with 18.8 seconds left, Northwestern called timeout to set up a 3-pointer by Falzon from the corner. He missed the shot, but Pardon rebounded it and got a putback to give NU a 51-50 lead with 7.1 seconds left. That set up the heroics by Jackson, who took the ball on the wing and drove past Falzon to hit a layup off the backboard over the outstretched arm of Pardon.
