Northwestern's trip out West ended 0-2 after an 81-75 loss at Oregon on Tuesday night on the heels of a tight loss at Washington late Saturday night.

The Ducks flew out to a 14-point halftime lead of 39-25 behind Jackson Shelstad, whose game-high 26 points was evenly split into 13 in each frame.

The Wildcats scored 50 points in the second half and cut the lead to five points multiple times in the last five minutes, fueled by veteran Ty Berry, who had a team-high 23 points, and freshman KJ Windham, who doubled his previous career high with 20 points. Big Ten scoring leader Nick Martinelli added 16 points and a team-best seven rebounds.

The undermanned Wildcats dropped both games on their first West Coast road trip in the new-look Big Ten by a combined 11 points.

"On this road trip, I think we put ourselves in a position to win both games," head coach Chris Collins told WGN postgame. "We had a four-point lead at Washington at the under-four timeout, we were within two possessions at the under-four timeout against a really good Oregon team that's probably in the NCAA Tournament.

"We did that without Jalen [Leach] and without Brooks [Barnhizer]. I think our guys can still be very competitive in this league against good teams, but hopefully we also understand what it takes to get over the hump, not just lose by five."

Here are our takeaways from the Wildcats’ fifth loss in their last six games.

West Coast was a warm welcome for Windham: Windham has shown flashes here and there this season: 10 points in the opener against Lehigh, nine at Dayton and eight at Penn State.

Against the Ducks, the rookie put it all together. He shot 8-for-14 from the floor, 4-for-7 on 3s, all career-highs in makes and takes.

Injuries have soured a once-promising campaign for the Wildcats, but Windham's shooting was a sight to behold. He poured in 15 of his 20 points in the second half, hitting key shot after key shot to pare Oregon's 14-point lead down to five with 5:11 left.

"For him to play 27 minutes tonight and do it against a player like Shelstad, how can that not be a learning experience, positive and negative?" Collins said. "Hopefully, it'll be a confidence booster."

The Wildcats were in desperate need for a scoring spark and Windham was happy to oblige against a team that has legitimate NCAA Tournament aspirations.

There's plenty of work left to be done in his game in terms of his shot discipline, defense and ability to distribute, but Windham put an indisputable proof of concept for his future on display in Eugene. Northwestern isn't in the moral victory business, but it's hard not to leave this game with excitement for what Windham can be in the purple-and-white over the next three seasons.

Injuries set the stage for Berry to showcase his scoring: Berry's game-high 23 came on an uber-efficient 8-for-10 from the floor and 4-for-5 from beyond the arc.

As injuries have taken out two of Northwestern's top three scorers and initiators, Berry has been pressed into duty and something has clicked into place.

Maybe this kind of run was already destined as he rounds back into form from an offseason injury, but since Barnhizer's season ended after a loss to Rutgers on Jan. 29, Berry is averaging 15 points per game on 47% shooting from the floor and 43% from 3.

It's bittersweet to see the fifth-year senior closing out his campaign so strong while competing for a spot in the Big Ten Tournament rather than a third-straight NCAA Tournament run, but to Berry's credit he has risen to the occasion in an expanded role.

Northwestern needs a transfer big: All 40 of Northwestern's center minutes went to Matt Nicholson and Keenan Fitzmorris, two 7-footers who will be out of eligiblity after this season. They are not without their flaws, combining for just six points and six rebounds, but the cupboard becomes truly barren for next season.

Luke Hunger entered the season as the No. 2 player on the depth chart, planning to give the Wildcats scoring and versatility to stretch the floor. But the sophomore from Canada has struggled mightily on 3s, shooting 2-for-18 on the season after a 6-for-30 mark last year as a freshman. That's 16.7% across a two-season, 51-game sample size.

Hunger was knocked out of the lineup with a foot sprain at Purdue on Jan. 5, forcing Fitzmorris into the rotation in his stead. Fitzmorris, a seventh-year senior has flourished with energy and rim protection and even though Hunger has been back from his injury for three weeks now, his role in the rotation has evaporated. He played just two minutes against the Ducks, playing forward next to Fitzmorris, with just a missed triple, a rebound, a turnover and a -4 on his stat sheet.

The book isn't fully closed on Hunger. He's still got two years of eligibility ahead of him in one of the best developmental programs in the country. But the Wildcats can't bank on an exponential leap from him or raw, athletic, big-man prospect Cade Bennerman in their incoming Class of 2025, to be their starter.

Games like this confirm that a starting center needs to be at the top of Northwestern's transfer targets for 2025-26.

Wildcats won't throw in the towel: Northwestern has made some radical moves in the past week to address holes created by injury, burning Jordan Clayton's redshirt and moving him directly into the starting lineup, and inserting seldom-used junior Justin Mullins alongside him. After Windham's 20-spot, it's doubtful that the lineup tumult is coming to a close, either.

The key revelation from this game is that while the staff has made experimental decisions, they're not throwing the season away on development. The team is deeply flawed without Leach and Barnhizer, and the 14-point halftime deficit showed that in spades after an ugly first half.

However, they didn't let the Ducks break them. They kept hanging around and hanging around, applying game pressure and finally made a push in the final minutes against a much more talented team.

Oregon’s 14-point lead with 9:12 left was whittled down to five with two minutes to go, but the Wildcats didn’t have enough to get over the hump.

Given their injuries and flaws, their Herculean reliance on Martinelli for offense and an inconsistent supporting cast, it's unclear how many wins are left on the six-game schedule ahead. But the Wildcats have shown that they are going to scratch and claw for each of them with what they have at their disposal.