Northwestern put up a good fight against 24th-ranked Purdue, but the Wildcats never led in a 75-70 loss to the Boilermakers in West Lafayette, Ind.
It was not only the ninth straight loss for reeling Northwestern this season, but it was also the Wildcats' ninth straight defeat at the hands of the Boilers.
Northwestern hasn't experienced a victory since beating Ohio State a Dec. 27, a span of 40 days and counting.
Pete Nance led NU with 20 points and eight rebounds as he continues to play well. Chase Audige had his strongest game in weeks with 18 points, six rebounds and six assists. Ryan Young was the only other Wildcat in double figures with 10.
Purdue was led by freshman Jaden Ivey, who scored 20. Purdue's star center, Trevion Williams, was limited to only 16 minutes because of foul trouble, but 7-foot-3 backup center Zach Edey scored 12 points and grabbed 11 boards in his extended minutes.
Here are our takeaways from the loss that dropped Northwestern to 6-10 overall and 3-9 in Big Ten play:
New starting 5: Head coach Chris Collins made the decision to move Boo Buie and Robbie Beran to the bench in favor of Anthony Gaines and Young, respectively. The move really didn't change much.
Young continued to be a consistent presence on both ends of the court for the Cats and gave Purdue problems with his size in the middle. Beran, however, continued to struggle mightily, with three points, one rebound and two fouls. Buie turned in a pedestrian eight points, while Gaines didn't score but played good defense.
Collins said one of the main reasons for the change was to avoid the slow starts that have hurt them lately. But Northwestern started the game down 8-1, so the lineup change didn't help there.
Young will almost certainly remain in the starting five for the foreseeable future, but it will be interesting to see whether Collins keeps Buie on the bench.
Turnovers continue to plague the Cats: Northwestern started the season as one of the better teams in the country in terms of avoiding turnovers, but that has changed recently as the Wildcats have turned it over 35 times in their last two games.
Buie and Young were the main culprits today, with each of them committing four of Northwestern's 15 turnovers. Purdue scored 18 points off of those Wildcat miscues.
Giving up chances to score is a recipe for disaster with a team as limited offensively as Northwestern is.
Free-throw disparity again hurts NU: Purdue shot 24 free throws, making 23. Northwestern shot 11, making eight.
That 15-point disparity at the line was the difference in the game. Northwestern made more three-pointers and shot a higher percentage from behind the arc. They did same from the field.
Northwestern rarely puts an opposing defense in a position where they're likely to foul. NU's offense too often consists of swinging the ball around the perimeter and then shooting a jumper.
Getting free points at the line can only help Northwestern's offense that is prone to long scoring droughts, but they don't put themselves in positions to get many free points.
Shots finally started to drop: Northwestern hit 10 threes on 35.7% shooting against Purdue. That isn't a great percentage, but it's double the number of threes they hit last time out against Rutgers. It was also just the third time they've hit double-figure threes during this nine-game slide.
Audige and Nance each hit three shots from behind the arc. Buie hit two, and Miler Kopp and Ty Berry added a triple of their own.
One of the driving forces behind Northwestern's 3-0 start in Big Ten play was their good shooting from long distance, but they have really struggled during the losing streak. Being able to get good looks in their half court sets on Saturday was a step in the right direction.
