Northwestern scheduled SIU-Edwardsville as a tune-up game, a little speed bump between Purdue and Michigan State on the schedule to get players ready to resume Big Ten play after a week off for finals.

That’s pretty much how this game looked. The Wildcats, who were playing without second-leading scorer Pete Nance, controlled the game and were never really in any kind of jeopardy. But they didn’t come away with any style points, either, in a fairly uneventful 72-54 win over an overmatched Cougars team.

If it wasn’t for Ryan Young, the Wildcats might have had a game on their hands. The redshirt freshman dominated the smaller Cougars inside, racking up a career-high 25 points and 12 rebounds to lead all players in both categories. He also dished out four assists, fewer than only teammate Boo Buie.

Zeke Moore paced SIU-E with 18 points and 7 rebounds.

Northwestern built an 11-point in the first 14 minutes of the game and looked like they would coast into the half. But the Wildcats then went cold, missing eight of their last 10 shots of the period.

The Cougars, meanwhile, got hot, hitting their last four shots of the half as they slashed the Wildcats’ edge to just 31-25 at the break.

The Wildcats then grabbed the game by the collar at the outset of the second half. A Pat Spencer steal-and-slam stretched NU’s lead to 12 and an Anthony Gaines’ 3-pointer pushed the edge to 16, 47-31, with 15:02 left, and it looked like the game was over.

But the Cougars had one more run in them, outscoring the Wildcats 6-0 to chop the lead down to 10 after Moore’s layup at the 5:42 mark.

Once again, Northwestern answered to get the lead back to a comfortable range. They gained their final 18-point margin on Ryan Greer’s two free throws with 14 seconds left to cap the scoring.

Here are our takeaways from the victory that pushed Northwestern back above .500 at 5-4 overall (0-1 Big Ten):

Young was a man among boys: Young had a career game, which wasn’t that much of a surprise. The Cougars didn’t play anyone taller than 6-foot-7, giving the 6-10 Young a big height advantage in the paint.

Young, though, was dazzling, hitting all kinds of hooks and short jumpers off of several spin moves. He was also very efficient, making 11 of 15 shots (though he made just 3 of 7 free throws). SIU-E simply had no answer for the skilled big man, who also consistently found open players on the perimeter for open shots.

Young also controlled the glass, pulling down 12 rebounds as the Wildcats enjoyed a 38-29 edge on the boards.

Nance sat this one out: Northwestern announced before the game that Nance, the talented sophomore averaging 11.9 points per game, wouldn’t play while he served a one-game, team-imposed suspension.

The team’s tweeted statement purposefully left the reasons for the suspension vague, saying only that “Nance is serving a team-issued, one-game suspension for failure to adhere to program standards.”

Nance is expected back for Wednesday night’s game against No. 16 Michigan State, but he missed an opportunity to knock some rust off and will have gone 10 days without a game when he faces the Spartans.

Not only was Nance unavailable, but leading scorer Miller Kopp was shut out in this one, missing all three of his shots from the floor.

Spencer rebounded from his oh-fer at Purdue: Spencer was coming off of a disappointing performance against the Boilermakers in the first Big Ten game of his career, when he failed to score and racked up more turnovers (3) than rebounds (2) or assists (2).

But the grad transfer shook off his lackluster performance – and quickly. He scored 9 points in the first half on 3-for-5 shooting, including a 3-pointer, and his breakaway dunk set the tone in the second half. In all, Spencer finished with 15 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in 31 minutes.

There was no hangover for the former lacrosse star.

Take this game with a grain of salt: This is not a very good SIU-E team, so any positives coming out of this game has to be weighed against the level of competition.

The Cougars are now 2-8 on the season and have lost six games in a row. They lost to Iowa by 27 and beat by 9 the Quincy team that NU destroyed, 105-64, in a preseason exhibition. They also lost to Chicago State in their last game.

This is also head coach Brian Barone’s first season at Edwardsville (he is the son of the late former Creighton and Texas A&M head coach Tony Barone). Moore, their leading scorer, is playing for his fourth different college program, and NU has four players on the roster taller than their tallest players.