EVANSTON-Northwestern took maybe the hottest team in America down to the wire on Tuesday night at an electric Welsh-Ryan Arena but couldn’t close the deal as No. 5 Michigan squeaked out a 62-60 win.

The Wildcats rallied from a 15-point second-half deficit to take a lead, and then had the ball, down by 2 points, with 11.1 seconds left. But they couldn’t get anything going on the final play, as A.J. Turner dribbled around for what seemed like an eternity on the final possession, forcing Ryan Taylor to take a desperation 3-pointer from the wing that bounced off the glass, off the front of the rim and out.

Northwestern coach Chris Collins said after the game that the play was designed to go to either Vic Law or Taylor on the wing but that Michigan defended it well.

“It wasn't shot we wanted, but credit (Taylor) for getting something on the glass,” said Collins.

Dererk Pardon led Northwestern with 20 points, 16 of them coming in a dominant first half. Vic Law added 19 points and a team-high 7 rebounds.

Michigan, which was coming off of 17- and 19-point wins over ranked North Carolina and Purdue teams, respectively, was led by freshman Ignas Brazdeikis’ 23 points and Jordan Poole’s 15. Jon Teske added a game-high 10 rebounds.

Collins saw plenty of positives in the game but said that he was “not a moral victory guy” and wasn’t happy with the outcome.

Here are our three pointers on the loss that drops Northwestern to 0-2 in Big Ten play, with both losses coming by just two points:

Pardon kept the Cats in the game in the first half: Northwestern’s big man turned in maybe the best 20 minutes of his career as the Wildcats went into the locker room trailing 36-30. He scored 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting with a variety of hooks and putbacks, and added four rebounds and two assists. He even hit a 3-pointer to give the Wildcats their first bucket.

Law scored eight points, Ryan Taylor 4 and Miller Kopp 2 – and that was it for Northwestern’s first-half scoring. Pardon was working for every bucket: on one memorable sequence, he got the ball in the post against Michigan’s 7-foot-1 Teske, pivoted to his left and right, tried to go under, and then spun around for his patented lefty hook in the lane.

Without Pardon’s heroics the game would have gotten away from the Wildcats early, as Michigan had a 7-point lead at the first media timeout and saw its advantage balloon to as much as 12.

The second half was a heavyweight fight: Both teams went back-and-forth, trading scoring runs in a wild second half that Michigan coach John Beilein likened to a February Big Ten game.

Michigan came out of the locker room blazing, going on a 9-0 run fueled by five points from Brazdeikis. The Wolverines at that point had a 45-30 lead, their biggest of the game. But it didn’t take Northwestern long to get back in the fray, responding with a 15-2 run to close the gap to 47-45 with 13:16 left. From then on, the teams alternated blows like boxers. Law hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Wildcats their first lead, 52-51, with 6:32 left. The lead changed hands three times and the score was tied twice from that point on, setting up the final frenetic sequence.

Welsh-Ryan was rocking: “That atmosphere was everything we dreamed about when we built this place,” said Collins about his new arena. It was the renovated Welsh-Ryan’s first Big Ten game and first true sellout in terms of fans in the building, rather than tickets sold.

During Northwestern’s second-half rally, the biggest roars came when Turner converted a layup and drew a foul on what would become a 3-point play, and when Anthony Gaines leaped over everyone in the lane to put back a Law miss.

But both fan bases – Northwestern had about a 70-30 advantage in the stands – had plenty to cheer about. Michigan would make a big basket and a “Let’s go, Blue!” chant would suddenly break out, only to be drowned out seconds later by a roar from the home crowd after an NU basket.

"Tremendous" was the word Beilein used to describe the new building and the atmosphere. “They should be very proud,” said Beilein. “They did a great job.”