After Saturday’s game — with Jitim Young looking on — Bill Carmody praised the play of Mohamed Hachad.
“He’s the only guy who jumps on our team,” Carmody said.
Young snickered from the background, unsure what to make of Carmody’s comment. The senior guard did, after all, scored a career-high 31 points and grab a team-high eight rebounds in the Wildcats’ 61-47 win over Minnesota at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Young’s offensive performance — the first time a Northwestern player broke the 30-point mark since Evan Eschmeyer recorded 30 on March 5, 1999 — helped the Cats (8-10, 3-4 Big Ten) snap their three-game losing streak. The Golden Gophers (8-10, 0-7) lost to NU for the second consecutive time.
“I just told the guys, ‘It sure beats losing,'” Carmody said. “It’s unbelievable.”
Although NU trailed 26-22 at the break, a locker-room talk by Young helped spark the Cats in the second half. Before a crowd of 4,468, the NU captain led the charge, scoring 26 of his points following the intermission.
“He was playing with emotion, which he usually does, but he had a little extra fire there,” Carmody said. “All of a sudden I saw it ignite.”
Young’s offensive explosion was a stark contrast to that of his former teammate Ben Johnson. Playing in Evanston for the first time since he transferred following the 2000-01 season, Johnson finished with just eight points on 4-of-10 shooting.
Leading 41-38 with eight minutes remaining, the Cats embarked on a 14-4 run, putting the game out of reach. Trailing by double digits, the Gophers missed a slew of three-pointers, finishing 4 of 22 from beyond the arc.
The Cats made just 11 percent of their long-distance attempts but outscored Minnesota 14-0 on fastbreak points, as Hachad and Young dropped in the bulk of the layups.
“I was a little faster than the guys out there,” said Young, who made 10-of-13 attempts from the field. “I felt they were a little tired and I was just beginning.”
The Gophers were without guard Maurice Hargrow — who transferred to Arkansas last week — and couldn’t develop much of an offensive rhythm. Hargrow had been averaging 11.4 points and 4.4 rebounds.
“We’ve got more mental issues than we do physical,” Minnesota coach Dan Monson said. “I thought they out-competed us, especially in the second half when things got bad.”
Although the Cats lost the battle of the boards (45-35), NU scored more points in the paint than the Gophers. Carmody credited his bigger players for their tough play — especially Ivan Tolic, Vedran Vukusic and Davor Duvancic.
“Those Croatian guys wouldn’t let the ball go down inside, which is great,” he said.
Hachad, who played just eight minutes Wednesday against Penn State, recovered nicely, finishing with 13 points and seven rebounds.
The sophomore guard said he didn’t play much at Penn State because he had ignored Carmody’s defensive scheme.
“I think running around a bit on defense gets me going,” said Hachad, who grabbed four steals. “It just gives me more confidence.”
Tolic also had a solid day — he hit a jumper to tie his career high of two points. pair of
“He actually scored today, ” Carmody said. “(His teammates) are real happy. They’re giving him the game ball.”
