EVANSTON-The stage was set for a new season of Northwestern basketball on Wednesday night as the Wildcats welcomed the Lewis University Flyers to Welsh-Ryan Arena for an exhibition.

The Wildcats shook off a slow start to dispatch their in-state foe 89-62 in their final tune up before the games start for real next Monday, Nov. 4, against Lehigh.

For the first time in what feels like forever, the Wildcats' starting lineup introductions didn't include all-time great Boo Buie. Also missing in action was the man expected to take over Buie's role as the Cats' go-to guy, Brooks Barnhizer, who continues to nurse an offseason foot injury.

Head coach Chris Collins' starting lineup was a mix of new and old. Joining program stalwarts Ty Berry, Matthew Nicholson and Nick Martinelli in the Cats' first five were graduate transfer Jalen Leach and true freshman KJ Windham, both playing in their first game as Wildcats. That starting lineup — though Barnhizer will presumably take Windham's spot when he's healthy — is a good representation of what the 2024-25 season will be for Northwestern. With Buie leaving a GOAT-sized hole in the Wildcats' rotation, Collins will be counting on plenty of new and younger players this season to fill in the backcourt alongside the veterans still in Evanston.

But first, one of those veterans was going to take the opportunity to put on a show. Junior Nick Martinelli led all scorers with 25 points. His herky-jerky scoring style was on display, but so was a sweet shooting touch: he finished 8-for-13 from the field, including 3-for-5 beyond the 3-point line.

"His next step is to be a guy to count on for major production every night, and he's ready for that..." Collins said. "We're expecting Nick to have a chance to be an all-conference player."

Leach, a Fairfield transfer, led the way among the new faces. After a slow start, he found his confidence after a poster dunk on a backdoor cut in the first half. The fifth-year senior rode that wave of confidence and finished with 20 points and four rebounds on an efficienct 7-for-12 shooting night, including 3-for-6 from beyond the arc.

"He's in a new situation," Collins said of Leach. "He's leveled up, coming from Fairfield; now he's playing in the Big Ten. I just thought that first half was kind of a feeling out process for him. I thought you saw in the second half hopefully a little more of what we expect. He's a big guard; he can shoot the ball. He can get to the basket; he can finish."

Northwestern will ask a lot of Leach this year as he will shoulder most of the point guard duties, while also being counted on to provide reliable three-point shooting and point-of-attack defense. After finding his rhythm, the veteran handled his new responsibilities flawlessly.

Leach wasn't the only player who took his new role and ran with it. Even though it's his second year in Evanston, junior Justin Mullins looked like a new player in an expanded role. The Oak Park, Ill. native only played more than 10 minutes in a game three times last season, but logged 25 tonight, the third-most on the team. Mullins was a force in those minutes. He stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, five rebounds, two assists and four steals, and his plus/minus was a whopping +30.

"I thought the unsung hero of the game was Justin Mullins," Collins said. "I couldn't take him out of the game just because he was doing so many good things... Just really proud of Justin; he's worked hard. He knows that he's a key guy for this team, and we need him."

Windham, in his first college action, didn't post a stat line as flashy as Leach or Mullins, but was calm and confident handling the ball. He had nine points and dished out five assists while being second on the team behind Mullins with a +23. Mullins and Windham figure to be two of the first guys off the bench for Collins once Barnhizer returns and the rubber meets the road in the regular season, and both acquitted themselves nicely in the final test run.

Collins was notorious last season, and the year before, for playing his best players hard, asking them to play extreme minutes, even in exhibitions. Tonight, he showed some restraint, playing veterans like Ty Berry and Matt Nicholson just 19 minutes and 11 minutes, respectively. Though Nicholson had a lowlight with a missed dunk, both of the captains played well and gave their younger or newer teammates a chance to shine.

The Wildcats' slow start surely sounded some alarm bells in Evanston, the Cats found themselves trailing 17-12 to a Division II program with 10:30 left in the first half. But the Wildcats quickly recovered, taking a seven-point lead at halftime and running away with it down the stretch. The early struggles were a product of where Northwestern is currently. Collins is trying to blend together a rotation that will be about half players with key roles the last two seasons, and half players who are new to their roles at Northwestern or new to college ball entirely.

"It's been difficult because for most of the summer and fall we haven't had those guys on the floor," Collins said. "Just recently, Ty's been practicing longer. Matt was just kind of in the last 10 days given the okay to start practicing and scrimmaging five-on-five. We're trying to build our team, and we have these veteran guys that we're trying to work back in while still trying to win games. We're trying to see how they play together."

In the second half, when Northwestern settled down, the game looked like everyone expected. The Cats, despite sitting Nicholson with Barnhizer for the whole half and Berry only logging two minutes, buried the Flyers en route to a 27-point victory. The Wildcats ramped up the defense, holding Lewis to just 36.4% from the floor and forcing 10 turnovers. The NU offense looked infinitely smoother than the clunky operation of the first 20 minutes.

After the break, Northwestern scored an impressive 52 points on sterling shooting marks of 57.1% from the field and 53.8% from beyond the arc. Despite only getting two combined minutes out of their three captains, the Cats ran like a well-oiled machine in the second half, a far cry from some of the sloppiness in the first frame.

The Cats are certainly a "work in progress," as Collins dubbed his team. With plenty of new faces stepping into new roles and the few players reprising their roles all coming back from injury, Collins' roster is entirely moving parts as the season gets ready to tip off.

The growing pains are to be expected, but as Collins said, Northwestern still needs to win games. It's hard to glean too much from a blowout win against a Division II team in an exhibition, but when the going got tough and the Flyers pushed the Cats, Northwestern showed the winning DNA that's carried them to the top of the Big Ten and into March Madness the last two seasons is still there.