With Northwestern leading 42-33 with 18:07 left to play, it looked as if The Streak might finally come to an end.
Then reality struck.
Three Wildcats fouls, all at the 18:07 mark, sparked a 20-6 Michigan run that sent NU to its 30th consecutive loss in the Big Ten.
Michigan (9-9, 3-4 Big Ten) prevailed 72-65 Saturday night before a boisterous crowd of 5,418 Welsh-Ryan Arena fans who were hoping for the Cats’ first conference win since Feb. 6, 1999. The 30-game streak broke the post-1946 record for consecutive Big Ten losses held by NU’s 1990-1992 squads.
The previous streak ended on former NU player Cedric Neloms’ 30-foot bank shot at the buzzer to beat Illinois, but no such miracles were in store for the current Cats (7-13, 0-8), who led for most of the game Saturday.
“This was a tough one. This was a real tough loss,” said NU coach Bill Carmody, whose team was favored by one point Saturday. “We didn’t play as well as we can play, but I thought they came out and played well enough to win.”
The Cats jumped to an early lead – as large as 12 in the first half and nine in the second – thanks to a three-point shooting exhibition that left the Wolverines helpless. NU nailed nine of 18 three-point attempts in the first half alone and only took eight shots from inside the arc the entire half.
NU guard Winston Blake, who led all scorers with a career-high 23 points, tied an NU record by knocking down seven three-pointers in the game, but only two of his treys came in the second half. Those two were NU’s only successful three-pointers out of 13 second-half attempts.
The torrid first-half shooting gave the Cats a 39-30 halftime edge, leaving Michigan with many questions and few answers heading into the locker room.
“You don’t expect guys to shoot that well that quickly,” Wolverines coach Brian Ellerbe said. “Bill’s team obviously came out and executed exactly what he wanted.”
But at the half – while the Cats’ football team accepted the Big Ten trophy – Michigan found a solution. Pounding the ball inside to center Josh Asselin on offense and constantly switching defenses to confuse NU, the Wolverines managed to make the game physical in the final 20 minutes.
Neither team visited the free throw line in the first half, but Michigan was in the bonus after Blake’s fourth foul just 5:25 into the second.
“We have to put the ball in the post, and I think we got away from that,” Ellerbe said. “I don’t want to get in a shooting contest with Northwestern, but I think we got our point across in the second half.”
The Cats and Wolverines actually were in a shooting contest down the stretch – one from the free throw line. And Michigan was the last team standing.
The Wolverines only made one shot from the floor in the final 10 minutes, but still scored 17 points in that span thanks to consistent efforts from the charity stripe.
The Cats, on the other hand, blew the front ends of two one-and-one situations in 33 seconds – the first by center Tavaras Hardy and the second by Blake. Each time, NU could have taken the lead by making both free throws.
Thus far in the Big Ten season, the Cats have not been competitive in the second half. They have held big leads in only two games: at Penn State, where NU blew a 14-point lead, and Saturday night.
In both contests, Blake jumped out to a quick start but got into foul trouble in the second half. For these winless Cats, a bad omen like that has been followed by a big run and, in the end, another loss.
“The shift went to Michigan there because we got a lot of fouls,” Blake said. “Those two games (Penn State and Michigan) are almost the exact same things. Those are games we have to pull out.”
NU has a week to plan for its first conference win, as Mid-American Conference cellar-dweller Buffalo pays a visit Wednesday. The Cats’ next conference foe will be Illinois on Saturday in Champaign.
