The motto “defense wins championships” wasn’t something Northwestern was buying into until facing Purdue on Saturday.
After giving up at least 70 points in five of their last seven games, the Wildcats had something to prove on defense.
Against the Boilermakers (5-15, 1-8 Big Ten) on Saturday, the Cats (10-11, 3-6) rode good defense instead of good shooting for the 67-61 victory at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
“I thought we defended fairly well in the beginning of the game and forced a lot of turnovers,” NU coach Bill Carmody said. “Basically, that was the difference.”
NU held Purdue to just 18 first-half points and forced 14 turnovers in the opening period. The Cats then turned those mistakes into 16 points to take a 14-point lead at halftime.
NU’s defense proved its resiliency again in the second half by withstanding a furious comeback attempt. With 2:13 left, Purdue had whittled the NU lead down to three.
But the Cats were able to keep the heat on.
“If we wouldn’t have played defense like that, then we would have been blown out,” forward Vedran Vukusic said. “They shot (64 percent) in the second half. If we didn’t force those turnovers with the way they were shooting, they would have beaten us probably.”
Saturday’s game was also one of role reversals.
NU, which averages a conference-low 60 points per game, has given up at least 70 points in more than half of its Big Ten games this season. But NU is first in the Big Ten with a 50 percent average from the field in conference games.
“(Purdue) sort of did what we’ve done in a few games this year because they shot the hell out of the ball in the second half,” Carmody said. “We shot over 50 percent for about four or five games and lost because we had a lot of turnovers.”
Using a defensive strategy similar to that used in the game against Indiana on Jan. 5, NU held Purdue forward Carl Landry to 12 points, seven points below his Big Ten-leading scoring average.
The Boilermakers junior also committed five turnovers.
“We tried not to let Landry get the ball as much as we could,” Carmody said. “Landry is very hard to guard, but I felt as a team we did a pretty nice job on him.”
Against Indiana’s Bracey Wright, NU effectively neutralized the scorer by denying him the ball. That forced the other Hoosiers to perform at a higher level, which didn’t happen.
The tactic worked similarly against Purdue.
With Landry held in-check, forward George Teague and guard Brandon McKnight were thrust into the spotlight.
But Teague shot 33 percent from the field with 11 points, and McKnight finished with almost as many turnovers (7) as points (10).
“We tried to give (Landry) as few touches as possible and stayed close to Teague,” Carmody said. “And after that, if someone else beat us, it was going to be that way.”
Reach Zach Silka at [email protected].
