WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Northwestern trailed wire-to-wire in a 79-61 loss at Purdue, their eighth straight loss on Sunday afternoon at Mackey Arena.

The Boilermakers were powered by star guard Braden Smith with 22 points, seven assists and six rebounds. They leapt out to an 11-3 advantage and capitalized on it quickly, leading by 10+ points for the final 27:29 of the game.

"We've been getting off to poor starts," Collins said. "I was really surprised by that. We've bounced back from tough times [before]...I didn't know we'd win the game but I thought we'd be ready to fight."

The silver lining was true freshman Angelo Ciaravino, who came off the bench to pour in 19 points as the Wildcats' leading scorer.

Barnhizer struggled in his final homecoming to the Lafayette area. The Boilers forced him into his worst game since his return to health this season and snapped his 7-game double-double streak. He finished with 11 points, eight rebounds and five assists, but was 4-for-15 from the field and committed eight turnovers.

"Don't get it twisted, they didn't guard one-on-one..." Collins said. "They double and triple teamed every time he attacked. And that was smart...they wanted him to be a passer and test our other guys, and we didn't make them pay."

Here are our takeaways from Northwestern's second loss of 2025 in as many tries.

Supporting scorers struggled: Purdue keyed in on Barnhizer with a swarm of long and athletic defenders, but also put together the most complete job of eliminating Northwestern's supporting scoring of anyone this season. Northwestern lost its first four games by 12 points combined before falling by 18 to the Boilers.

Two Northwestern starters, Ty Berry and Matt Nicholson, were held scoreless. Nicholson played a season low in minutes, while Berry and Jalen Leach played their second-lowest marks.

"I was playing the guys that I thought were competing," Collins said. "I was trying to find a group that was going to fight."

Nicholson and Berry are players who can reshape the team, even the whole game, when they get going. But the inconsistency has become glaring. Berry is two games separated from 23 points; Nicholson is three games separated from 14 and three steals. Today, that production evaporated and the team had to scramble.

Any leeway from their respective injury recoveries has been exhausted and the Wildcats need both of their fifth-year seniors to deliver veteran experience, not flip a coin to see if they'll even scratch the surface during the course of the game.

Purdue harried Northwestern's leading duo, forcing the ball out of Barnhizer's and Nick Martinelli's hands early and often. Martinelli came into the game averaging 20 points and was held scoreless in the first half before coming on late to finish with 10.

"They were making Nick and Brooks pass early and we weren't able to capitalize," Collins said. "Then they tried to do too much. I thought that really happened with Brooks, trying to take three or four guys on."

Ciaravino "a bright spot" for Wildcats off the bench: Ciaravino provided a spark as an emergency add for Collins, playing 20 minutes and scoring a career-high 19 points after playing just 12 minutes total in their first three Big Ten games.

He was the only Wildcat to shoot better than 50%, finishing 8-for-14 from the field and 3-for-7 from three. The freshman guard has thrived in adverse environments and this performance supplanted his previous career-high of 12 at Dayton.

"His role on the team going forward is huge..." Collins said. "He's fearless; he's not afraid of the moment."

The Wildcats need more scoring and creation to compete at the highest level, and they may continue to turn to Ciaravino, and his fellow freshman guard KJ Windham, in a midseason gambit to find it.

"With those guys, it's about sharpening up the little things, the details of the defensive scheme and being in the right spots," Collins said. "The more they pick that up, the more they're going to play because both of those kids have talent. I've been wanting them to get to this point...the one real bright spot, in my opinion, was Angelo's minutes tonight."

Center is a liability: Northwestern needs more from their big men, plain and simple. Two points, four rebounds, zero blocks and zero free throws just aren't enough.

That's not for either Luke Hunger or Nicholson; that's both of them combined.

The Wildcats did a solid job holding Trey Kaufman-Renn to 12 points and six rebounds, but it mattered little when they exerted such little pressure around the rim on either side of the floor.

Hunger is now 1-for-15 on 3-pointers this season, an abysmal 6.7%. Collins was so fed up he turned to seventh-year reserve center Keenan Fitzmorris for the final nine minutes of the game. Fitzmorris was also held scoreless and rebound-less, but did tally two blocks and a steal as the Wildcats whittled away at the lead late.

The Wildcats need to find an energetic force in the paint to back up the physical defense on the perimeter, and when Nicholson turns apathetic and Hunger continues to play below the rim on both ends, good teams can take advantage. They can't keep counting on Barnhizer or Martinelli to soar in to save the team's efforts on the glass.

Plenty of season ahead: Nearly a year ago to the day in 2024, the Wildcats lost by 30 at Illinois, with an apocalyptic loss to Chicago State in their back pocket.

They would get up off the mat and beat Michigan State at home by 14 just five days later. Even in 2023, they lost by 16 to Ohio State at home to start the New Year.

Now, the Wildcats may not make such a seismic swing against this season's Michigan State team in their next outing, against yet another ranked opponent, at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

But Collins' teams have proved their resilience again and again. They haven't lost three straight games since the closing weeks of the 2022-23 season.

They'll have a week to flush this loss, and the loss at Penn State, regroup and attack this season. Purdue is a very good team, and while they revealed a series of flaws in the Wildcats, there are plenty of Big Ten opponents that cannot apply the same pressure and force the same mistakes.

Collins recognizes he's two games behind where they were when they dropped those stunners to the Illini and Buckeyes. But he still has faith in what this team is capable of, even if they've burned through some early insurance.

"We're 15 games in, we're 10-5, we have 16 games left," Collins said. "There's a little fire alarm going off that we have to extinguish... But everything is still right in front of us."