Martinelli & Co. step up to replace Berry in Penn State win

EVANSTON-What a difference a year makes.

Last season, on Super Bowl Sunday, No. 1 Purdue was in town. Welsh-Ryan Arena was packed to the rafters, the Wildcats pulled off one of the biggest wins in school history and the fans stormed the court.

This season, for Penn State, there was no line of students waiting to get in an hour before tip off. The arena was half-full. Even the student sections had plenty of empty seats.

They missed a pretty good game.

Northwestern beat Penn State 68-63, completing a season sweep, in the first of what could be several games without starting guard Ty Berry. All five starters scored in double figures for Northwestern, led by Boo Buie’s 15 then Ryan Langborg and Brooks Barnhizer, who finished with 14 apiece.

Those three players scored 43 points but were a frigid 10-of-40 combined from the field. Northwestern head coach Chris Collins didn’t care that the win may not have racked up many style points.

“In a lot of respects this was the best win of the year for us,” said Collins, referring to the loss of Berry. He continued, “Some Big Ten games, you’ve got to grind them out. It’s not going to be pretty every game.”

That’s an understatement. The Wildcat offense often looked ragged without Berry, and shot just 31.7% for the game. But they took care of the ball (six turnovers) and dominated the offensive boards (13-3), so they finished with 15 more shots than the Nittany Lions.

Penn State, unranked and 6-6 in the Big Ten, certainly didn’t provide the juice that Zach Edey and the Big Ten heavyweight Boilermakers did last season. But the arena was also subdued because fans were anxious about how the Wildcats would look without Berry, the stalwart guard who started the last 53 games in a row and was the team’s top three-point shooter.

Berry, a senior, was injured in the first half of the Wildcats’ win over Nebraska on Wednesday night. Collins didn't have an update on Berry's status but sources told WildcatReport that the knee injury will sideline him for a minimum of a few weeks with more medical evaluation to come soon.

Until details and a precise diagnosis arrive, Northwestern has to prepare to play without him. And you don’t replace a player like Berry with just one man, said Buie.

“Everybody has to step up, including everybody that was playing before [he went down],” he said.

When asked what the game plan was to replace Berry, Collins talked more about strategy than personnel.

“Our game plan was to take care of the ball,” he said. Mission accomplished. The Wildcats turned the ball over 18 times in their win at Penn State last month. On Sunday, they had just six.

Penn State tried to get the ball out of Buie’s hands as much as possible, so Collins used guys like Barnhizer, Langborg and Jordan Clayton to bring the ball up. They also tried to use “quick-hitting actions,” with ball screens and direct handoffs whenever possible.

Nick Martinelli, who has answered the bell every time his coach has rung it over the last two years, got his first career start in Berry’s place, as expected. He wound up playing 36 minutes – more than Berry’s average of 29.7 per game – and finished with an impressive line of 11 points, eight rebounds and two assists.

Martinelli’s size – he’s 6-foot-7, compared to Berry’s 6-foot-3 – enabled the Wildcats to control the glass, and it helped him score over the smaller Lions.

“He’s a tough matchup because we’re just not big enough,” lamented Penn State coach Mike Rhoades. “We don’t have Big Ten size this year. He bullied us… It was a mismatch.”

Martinelli finished with a team-high four offensive rebounds.

“He brings a bigger body to the position,” said Buie, who still led the Wildcats with six assists despite Penn State’s focus on taking the ball out of his hands. “Nick is really good around the rim. [He gives teams] a different look, teams have to guard differently.”

Right behind Martinelli in minutes was Clayton, a seldom-used freshman point guard who was averaging just 8.0 minutes per game coming into Sunday’s contest. He made possibly the earliest appearance of his career, three minutes into the game. He didn’t score and had one rebound and four fouls in 11 minutes – though he finished with a team-best +13 in plus/minus rating.

Collins also pulled a Super Sunday surprise out of his hat, putting walkon sophomore guard Blake Smith into the game at the 11:36 mark, before scholarship transfer Justin Mullins. He did it again with 1:17 left in the half, and finally with 10.3 seconds to go in the game.

That move was just slightly more surprising than giving a team manager some run. Smith had appeared in one game all season, playing less than one minute. He finished with two minutes.

“From a defensive perspective and the way he’s been practicing, [Smith] earned those minutes,” said Collins.

There will be a lot more minutes coming the way of players who may not be used to it. Northwestern may be a man down but, as Buie pointed out with a military reference, the Wildcats are ready for it.

“I’m with my soldiers and we’re going to war…,” said Buie about upcoming road games at Rutgers and Indiana. “We’ve been there before and we know how to win.”