Coach Bill Carmody scheduled Monday’s nonconference game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi hoping it would keep the Wildcats fresh in the midst of league play.
But someone forgot to tell the Islanders they were supposed to be midseason rollovers.
Corpus Christi (17-7), competing against a Big Ten opponent for the first time in school history, gave Northwestern all it could handle for 39 minutes. The 3,066 fans in Welsh-Ryan Arena couldn’t breathe easily until Michael Jenkins hit a 3-pointer with 56 seconds remaining to give the Cats a six-point lead.
NU (12-12, 4-7 Big Ten) held on for a 59-51 win.
“I take blame for not having my team ready to play,” Carmody said. “That’s my responsibility.”
The Islanders jumped on the Cats with a 12-3 run to begin the game. NU’s only points came on free throws by forward Vedran Vukusic.
The Bailey connection worked early and often for the Islanders. Travis Bailey assisted brother Thomas twice for 3-pointers in the opening three minutes. Thomas ended up with a team-high 14 points, while Travis added 11.
Vukusic led the Cats with 23 points, but he hit just 1 of 10 from 3-point range, citing fatigue as a reason for his flat shots. As a team, the Cats tossed up 26 3-pointers, but hit just seven.
“We knew they were very good,” Carmody said of Corpus Christi, which started the season 7-1, with wins against Florida State and at Baylor. “They were the talk of the basketball season for the first six weeks of the season.”
The Cats fought back to take a lead at the 9:40 mark when swingman Tim Doyle posted up on senior forward Corey Stokes and hit a layup and drew a foul. His free throw gave NU a 21-18 advantage.
Travis Bailey answered with a 3-pointer 15 seconds later to even up the game. The Cats regained the lead on Davor Duvancic’s 3-pointer at the 8:53 mark, but that was NU’s last field goal of the half.
Corpus Christi outscored the Cats 10-2 over the reminder of the half to take a 31-26 lead into the break.
“I thought that was a horrible performance,” Carmody said about his team’s first half. “I was just very disappointed.”
The Islanders began the second half with a bang, with Travis Bailey swishing a 3-pointer to extend his team’s lead to eight. Two foul shots by forward Seth Engelken gave Corpus Christi a 10-point lead, the largest margin for either team.
The Cats fought back by playing pressure defense, something they did for almost the whole game. NU forced 21 turnovers, collecting 12 steals, including four from center Vince Scott.
“In the second half, I thought we played harder,” Carmody said. “We played with a little more verve.”
The Cats took the lead for good when Scott found Vukusic cutting towards the basket at the 10:09 mark. Vukusic’s layup gave NU a 40-39 edge. Although the Cats never relinquished their lead, they didn’t pull away until Jenkins’ 3-pointer gave NU a 57-51 lead.
The senior walk-on finished with 11 points, hitting 3 of 4 from beyond the arc.
“I thought we were going to win the game,” Corpus Christi coach Ronnie Arrow said. “But when it needed to get done, (the Cats) were more patient and ran their offense better than we did.”
The loss snapped Corpus Christi’s six-game winning streak, its longest single-season streak in school history.
Reach Anthony Tao at [email protected].
