EVANSTON-Northwestern escaped its mid-November matchup with Western Michigan on Tuesday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena, 63-59.

The Wildcats (3-0) led by seven at halftime, but their lead got whittled down in the second half and spent much of the late stages of the game bouncing between a two- and four point lead.

"We were very fortunate to win that game," head coach Chris Collins said. "I told Dwayne [Stephens] after the game that I thought they deserved to win. Their physicality, the way they rebounded, the pace they played with, we were very fortunate to win the game tonight."

Boo Buie poured in 13 second-half points on his way to 21 in the game to lead all scorers. Brooks Barnhizer was right behind him with a career-high 20 points to go with seven rebounds and three steals.

Seth Hubbard led the Broncos in scoring with 17 points, albeit on 7-for-21 shooting. Western Michigan (0-3) came up short on the scoreboard but absolutely owned the glass, 43-21 overall and 17-4 on offensive rebounds.

Here are our takeaways from the Wildcats' narrow win:

Rebounding needs to kick up a notch: Northwestern lost the rebounding battle by a mile. You might think that the rebounding woes could be a function of the four-guard lineups that Northwestern has favored this season, but Collins was quick to dispel that hypothesis and point to his team's dedication and physicality.

"It has nothing to do with our size, it's more about our inability," he said. "We're not blocking out, we're not gang rebounding... It's a collective effort.

"To me, it has nothing to do that because they were playing all guards, too... It was more about mentality. I didn't think we came into this game with the mindset of hitting people and being physical."

The rebounding disparity doesn't just get laid at the feet of the guards. Collins turned his ire on his centers as well.

"But we need our bigs to rebound, too, you know?" he added. "Matt [Nicholson] has one rebound, Blake [Preston] has a couple rebounds, Luke [Hunger] didn't have a rebound. It's a collective effort."

The plot thickens at guard with Clayton's success: Northwestern's guard depth was already expected to be a strength with Buie, Ty Berry and Ryan Langborg, and Barnhizer as a hybrid guard-forward. Now, as freshman guard Jordan Clayton enters the fray, there may be a reshuffling afoot.

That first four played the top four minutes against Dayton. But against Western Michigan, Clayton supplanted Berry as the team's fourth-most frequent player. Collins mentioned earlier in his press conference he would have liked to play Berry more, but his hand wringing about not involving the streaky senior guard was quieter than normal.

Clayton played 22 minutes and scored three points, and added a steal. His game went beyond the stat sheet though, as he provided valuable ball handling, decision-making and defense that could take some of the pressure off of Buie in those areas.

Collins said Clayton's early impact was expected from the recruiting process.

"He's really solid," Collins said. "He knows what we're doing out there. He's a good defender and a tough kid... My expectation was he was going to be ready to play in the rotation this year. He's going to keep getting better and better."

The inverse of Clayton is Denver transfer Justin Mullins. An athletic shooting guard expected to make an immediate impact offensively, Mullins didn't get off the bench for the second straight game.

Collins said that was regrettable but that Mullins' time was soon to come.

"It's game by game," Collins said. "His time is coming and I told him after the game there was opportunity there, and I should have given him a shot. I have a tendency at times with a lot of veteran guys that have been part of big wins [to not go deep into my rotation]."

Defensive pressure kept Wildcats away from an upset: Even as the Broncos whittled down Northwestern's seven-point halftime lead to eventually tie the game with 4:18 to play, the Wildcats stayed in control with their defensive excellence. They finished with a 17-7 turnover margin, forced 32% shooting from the 3-point line and got bailed out at the free-throw line because Western Michigan shot just 58%.

The old adage says that defense travels. We can amend that to defense enables you to win at home against a winless MAC team, too. This one wasn't pretty, but the Wildcats survived and kept their perfect non-conference record intact in the aftermath of an emotional win over Dayton.

Barnhizer has stepped up into the role that Chase Audige occupied the last couple years as the team's premier defender. Rather than Audige's ball-hawk style, Barnhizer instead invokes an octopus, using his long arms to poke and knock balls away from lazy ball handlers on drives to create new opportunities.

The junior finished tonight with three steals, his season average through three games. Buie chipped in with two steals as well, and Nick Martinelli, of all people, sealed the game with a steal of his own.

The Wildcats may not be individually impressive defensively, but through three games they can be systematically potent.

"Down to the last four minutes as a one-possession game," Collins said. "We were able to make a couple of shots and get a couple of stops -- not many, but enough to win the game, which is a positive."

Career night for Barnhizer: Barnhizer finally reached the 20-point barrier. After two 19s and two 18s in the past year-plus, he broke through against the Broncos.

Any celebrations were dulled by the team's self-admitted frustrating performance, but it's still important to note his scoring ability early this season. He's averaging 17 points per game alongside Buie and has shown he can be a reliable second scoring option.

"It feels good, though my head was in other places during the game," Barnhizer said on the accomplishment. "It's cool to see I got 20 but it's not anything I'm worried about.

"I just wish the game was a little more complete. But we'll complete it the next few days at practice."

Free throws hamstring Northwestern's size late: Once again, Northwestern's center rotation seems to have trouble making free throws.

Last season, Nicholson shot 47.8% and Tydus Verhoeven shot 61.9%. This year, Nicholson has bumped his average to 60%, but Blake Preston, Verhoeven's replacement, is at just 33%.

It's just a three game sample size, but history tells us that those numbers might not move very much. Preston shot 39.7% from the free-throw line last season in 35 games at Liberty.

With Northwestern up four and 1:06 left, Collins swapped Preston for Martinelli, seemingly to prepare for a series of intentional fouls on the horizon.

Now, to be clear, Martinelli was responsible for the game-sealing steal on Western Michigan's last legitimate possession. But he was also indirectly part of the group that allowed the Broncos to grab an offensive rebound after Hubbard's miss, and find him again for a layup to cut the game to two.

This was hardly the game to sing Nicholson or Preston's praises as rebounders, but the pair's free-throw shooting could be a red flag to watch down the stretch. If they're going to be limited offensively, they can't fall into Hack-a-Shaq-level shooting or they'll compromise Northwestern's ability to maintain narrow leads late in games.