As Evan Seacat lay motionless near midcourt Saturday, his Northwestern teammates huddled around coach Bill Carmody.
They were concerned for Seacat, but wouldn’t let his fall keep them from burying the Nittany Lions.
NU emerged from the 10-minute delay and continued its 30-2 offensive run, en route to a 65-52 romping of Penn State at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
“It motivated us a little bit more,” guard Jitim Young said. “I saw guys say, ‘Let’s just go. Let this be an inspiration to us. We got to get this win for Evan.'”
With the nationally televised victory, the resurgent Wildcats (11-11, 6-5 Big Ten) continued their dominance of opponents at home and moved into a four-way tie with Iowa, Indiana and Purdue for fourth place in the conference standings.
Behind a raucous crowd of 5,108, NU extended its conference winning streak to three, a feat the team last achieved two years ago. This is the Cats’ best conference start since 1999, which was the last time they qualified for the National Invitation Tournament. The win also was Carmody’s 50th at NU and has the team at .500 for the first time since Dec. 27.
“We definitely needed this win,” forward Vedran Vukusic said. “All of us were ready to do whatever we had to do to win and everybody took shots. And especially in that big run we had, nobody pretty much, missed shots and that’s how you win games.”
Penn State (9-12, 3-7) carried a two-point advantage into halftime, but the lead didn’t last long after the break. The Cats outscored the Nittany Lions 13-0 to open the second half. After Jagla hit a jumper, NU then reeled off another 17 unanswered points. Davor Duvancic, Young, Vukusic and guard Mohamed Hachad accounted for all of the Cats’ offense during the 30-2 run.
The onslaught began when Duvancic drained a three-pointer with 19:28 remaining. It took the Cats only nine minutes to build a 26-point lead.
“I didn’t get emotional at halftime,” Carmody said. “I thought the effort was there in the first half, but a little misdirected or they had nervous energy. I actually tried to calm them down and told them, ‘We’re doing OK.'”
NU and Penn State had swapped the lead eight times in the first half, but the Cats never again fell behind after Duvancic put his team up 26-25.
The Cats’ defensive effort flustered Penn State, which shot 40 percent in the game. Jan Jagla powered the Nittany Lions with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Unlike its last two games against Penn State — both went into overtime — NU was able to cruise to a victory.
Early in the second half, a screen set by Penn State’s 7-foot forward Jagla caught Seacat, 6 feet 3, square in the chin and knocked him to the floor. Seacat, who suffered a concussion, had movement in his extremities as of Sunday, a team spokesman said. But he remained in the hospital through the night for further observation.
NU capitalized on Penn State’s 20 turnovers but struggled on the glass. The Nittany Lions outrebounded the Cats 42-22 and held a 15-3 edge in second-chance points. It hardly mattered though because Penn State couldn’t slow the Cats in the paint where they scored 34 points.
Vukusic and Young led all scorers with 17 and Hachad added 16 points, five steals and five rebounds.
“We were telling each other we’ve got to play,” Hachad said. “We can’t lose this game. We just came out and you could see in every guy’s eyes that we were ready to play and it worked out.”
