Suddenly clutch Cats close out historic win over No. 1 Purdue
Chase Audige was having a dreadful game offensively. The senior guard, always streaky, made just two of his first 11 shots and committed three turnovers.
As he put it, “I couldn’t throw a rock in the ocean.”
The Wildcats trailed No. 1 Purdue by eight points, 55-47, with less than four minutes left. Northwestern ran a play for Ty Berry, who got an open look and missed it.
But Boo Buie weaseled his way into the trees to pull down the offensive rebound, "a huge play," according to Purdue head coach Matt Painter.
Buie kicked the ball out to Audige, who had his feet set in the corner. This time, the three-pointer was pure to cut the lead to five.
Then Audige, with Northwestern applying full-court pressure, picked Fletcher Loyer’s pocket near half-court and went in for a dunk. It was a one-possession game and that five-year-old, multimillion-dollar roof was ready to blow off of Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Northwestern, the team that seemingly found creative ways to lose game after game the last three seasons, closed out the No. 1 team in the nation from there.
Starting with Audige’s triple from the corner, the Wildcats outscored the big, bad Boilermakers 17-3 the rest of the way to post a 64-58 win, the program’s first over an AP No. 1 team in history on its 19th try.
"One of the reasons why I wanted to come here was to get the opportunity to create historical games," said an elated, emotional Chris Collins after the game. "How often in your life do you have an opportunity to create history?"
It was Audige who got the party started, putting an ice-cold start behind him to score a red-hot 10 points in less than two minutes. After the three and dunk, he hit a jumper and another three to help turn an eight-point Purdue lead into a 59-57 Wildcat advantage with 1:39 to go.
"Down the stretch, I thought he was awesome," said Collins.
Collins said that Audige has what he calls “shooter’s amnesia.” Collins should know: he had the same affliction when he was a player and no shot seemed unmakeable.
"Not a lot of guys can miss shots and not have that affect them," said Collins. "He always thinks he’s going to make the next shot."
It was more than just Audige, though. It was Buie, who scored a game-high 26 points and almost single-handedly kept the offense afloat in the second half. It was Brooks Barnhizer, who hit two free throws and then stole the ball from national player of the year frontrunner Zach Edey with less than two and a half minutes left. It was Ty Berry, who came up with the steal with nine seconds remaining that sealed the deal.
Northwestern possesses a new-found ability to come through with the game on the line. After going 5-12 in games decided by single digits last season, the win over Purdue makes them 8-3 this year.
Talk about a turnaround. How did they suddenly become so clutch, so quickly?
"It comes from being 5-12," said Audige with a smirk. He said that several times this season, this team won games that he thinks they would've lost a season ago.
"It's not being afraid of the moment, wanting the game more," he said.
Collins said that, even after a stretch when Northwestern missed eight straight shots in the second half, he felt like the team was "right there" because they were getting good looks. It helped that Northwestern's defense, which forced 16 Purdue turnovers and turned them into 22 points, kept getting stops on the other end.
Instead of Northwestern failing to execute, it was Purdue who fumbled the ball away with the game in the balance. The Boilermakers committed three turnovers in the last minute and a half alone, including two by Braden Smith, as Northwestern scored five of the last six points of the game.
This is the new-look Wildcats, the team that won tight road games at Michigan State, Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio State, and just knocked off the best team in the conference in a venue that now looks like a snake pit for opposing teams.
"A lot of talk is that we can’t close," said Collins. "This is a different year and a different team."
This isn't the same old Northwestern. And after five straight losing seasons, this one is ready to get back to the Big Dance.