EAST LANSING, Mich.–Northwestern men’s basketball coach Bill Carmody mentioned one specific play after his team’s loss against Michigan State on Saturday.
“(Junior) Chris Hill hit a big shot,” Carmody said. “I think we were down eight, and we defended pretty well. He knocked down a three in the left-hand corner there with our guy on him.”
That basket came with the shot clock winding down and just 5:58 remaining in the game. The three-pointer sent a surge through the sold-out Breslin Center crowd and gave the Spartans a comfortable 56-45 lead.
Led by Hill and sophomore Maurice Ager, who each drained three treys, Michigan State (15-9, 10-3 Big Ten) did most of its damage from beyond the arc in beating the Wildcats, 66-56.
While the Spartans hit 7-of-11 three-point attempts in the second half and finished the game 9 for 18, the Cats (11-12, 6-6) couldn’t get anything going from outside. They finished with two three-pointers on 16 attempts.
“I’ll look back and I don’t think we had the greatest shots, but I’ll bet you some of those shots were pretty makeable and they didn’t go down,” Carmody said. “It seemed like they made theirs, and that’s what good teams do.”
NU didn’t look like the team that led the Big Ten with 7.5 three-pointers per game going into the contest, and it wasn’t because of tough pressure by Michigan State.
“I don’t think it was their defense,” said sophomore Mohamed Hachad, who was 0 of 5 from three-point range. “We just didn’t make our shots. Maybe we should put aside some extra time and go shoot in the morning before practice. We’ve been doing a lot of shooting in practice, but we just have to do more until they go in.”
Perhaps the absence of sophomore Evan Seacat, who was unable to compete because of a concussion suffered against Penn State last Saturday, contributed to a performance that surprised some Michigan State players. Seacat has scored the second-most three-pointers for NU, while averaging just 17 minutes per game.
“Their big men can shoot and their guards can shoot,” Ager said. “They’re one of the best all-around teams in the league because they have guys who can dribble, shoot, pass, and I was surprised when they could only hit a few threes.”
It didn’t help the Cats much that the Spartans were having their way from behind the arc. Michigan State averaged 38 percent three-point shooting coming into the game, but managed to shoot 50 percent on the day.
In a game hard-fought until the end of the second half, accurate shooting gave the Spartans an edge.
After Hill’s three-pointer with 5:58 remaining, NU senior Jitim Young missed two free throws. Ager followed up with another three-pointer that made the score 59-45 with 5:29 to go. Without the threat of NU hitting threes, the Cats couldn’t catch up.
“We were putting them up and they just wouldn’t fall in,” Young said. “That’s what we do. We’re a team that shoots threes, and we work on them a lot. Today they didn’t fall.”
