Northwestern certainly got its money’s worth out of its first NCAA Tournament experience: a thrilling game, a nail-biting finish and enough drama to make up for the 78 tournaments that went on without them.
The Wildcats built a 15-point, second-half lead and then lost it, setting up a wild stretch run that saw six lead changes in the last 1:36. But when the smoke cleared, eighth-seeded Northwestern emerged with its first-ever win in the Big Dance, 68-66 over No. 9 Vanderbilt, in the first round of the West Region in Salt Lake City.
Northwestern (24-10) advances to take on No. 1-seeded Gonzaga, which beat 16th-seeded South Dakota State 66-46.
Bryant McIntosh did the heavy lifting for the Wildcats, scoring a game-high 25 points to go along with 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Scottie Lindsey and Dererk Pardon added 14 points apiece.
Pardon led Northwestern with 11 rebounds and also made 6 free throws down the stretch to help put the win on ice.
Vanderbilt (19-16) was led by Matthew Fisher-Davis, who scored 14 of his 22 points in the second half.
Here are our three pointers on a historic victory for the Wildcats:
What a finish! After Nathan Taphorn hit a 3-pointer, Northwestern had a 49-34 lead with 13:41 left and Vivint Arena sounded like Welsh-Ryan West. But Vanderbilt answered with a 12-0 run, fueled by two deep 3s from Fisher-Davis, to cut the advantage to 3 points, and a mad dash to the finish was on. Riley LaChance hit a long triple from what seemed like Park City to give Vanderbilt a 62-61 lead with 1:36 left, the Commodores first lead since the early stages of the first half. McIntosh answered with a floater to take the lead back. And so it went. Vic Law missed a free throw (Northwestern made just 10 of 18 in the game) and Jeff Roberson made a layup to regain the lead for Vandy. Pardon hit two free throws for the lead, LaChance took it back with a layup. Then, in a game-turning play, Fisher-Davis inexplicably fouled McIntosh near half-court with 14 seconds left, mistakenly thinking that his team was trailing. McIntosh hit both free throws – the Cats hit 9 of their last 11 free throws after making just 1 of their first 7 – to give Northwestern the 67-66 lead it wouldn’t relinquish. Sanjay Lumpkin added a last free throw, but the Wildcats did not exhale until a three-quarter court heave from Fisher-Davis bounced off the backboard at the buzzer.
Vanderbilt couldn’t handle McIntosh: Northwestern’s junior point guard turned in a brilliant performance in the biggest game of his career, hitting 10 of 16 shots, including 3 of 5 from beyond the arc, to carry an offense that sometimes sputtered. Vanderbilt couldn’t keep McIntosh out of the paint and his penetration led to several of his patented floaters in the lane. Northwestern used screens to try and get a bigger defender to switch onto McIntosh, and then B-Mac went to work by blowing past him. The Wildcats shot 49.1 percent from the game, but take McIntosh out of the equation and they shot only 16 of 37, or 30.2 percent.
The moment wasn’t too big for Northwestern: Many observers wondered if the Wildcats would be wide-eyed in their first tourney game, but they answered the bell, playing well on both ends for most of the first half. McIntosh wound up scoring 10 of NU’s first 17 points, and by halftime the Wildcats had a 34-27 lead after shooting 56 percent from the floor. Northwestern’s biggest problems were turnovers – they had 8 in the first half but just 4 in the second – and free-throw shooting, though the Wildcats made up for early failures by sinking 7 of 8 in the last 2:30. Yes, they blew a 15-point lead over the last 13-plus minutes, but Vanderbilt’s shooters drilled several high degree-of-difficulty shots to claw back into the game. And the bottom line is that when the game hung in the balance, Northwestern found a way to get it done. The strategy for the tourney is survive-and-advance, according to the late Jim Valvano, and that is exactly what the Wildcats did on Thursday.
