A peculiar scene encapsulated the type of afternoon it was for Northwestern. The Wildcats were trailing Illinois by 13 points with 3:28 left in the game – not exactly a favorable situation against the No. 7 team in the nation. But the NU faithful at soldout Welsh-Ryan Arena roared during the media timeout as if victory was imminent.
Excuse the home crowd for getting overexcited when its team manages to make a lopsided debacle mildly interesting. But to the delight of the sizeable horde of orange-clad fans, the Fighting Illini (17-2, 3-2 Big Ten) held off the Cats’ improbable rally for a 58-47 win Saturday.
NU (9-8, 2-4) made the final score respectable with a 17-4 run midway through the second half. But for the rest of the game, the Cats were beaten soundly on both ends of the court.
Illinois went into halftime with a 32-17 lead after freshman guard Chester Frazier drilled a 3-pointer at the buzzer. The reigning Big Ten champs led by as many as 26 in the second half before NU converted a series of layups.
“We should have finished the game, and that’s no disrespect to Northwestern,” said Illinois coach Bruce Weber. “It’s a sad thing that we didn’t finish it, so we leave with a little bit of a negative taste.”
While Weber’s only concern Saturday was defensive lapses with a commanding lead, the Cats struggled to compete. Some of the lowlights from a dismal team performance:
l Vedran Vukusic, the Big Ten’s leading scorer, made his first basket with 97 seconds left in the game.
l The Cats missed 17 of 20 from the 3-point line. Two of their field goal droughts lasted 8:50 and 7:05.
l 5-foot-9 Michael Jenkins grabbed five rebounds – two more than the frontcourt of Tim Doyle, Vince Scott and Bernard Cote combined.
“You start questioning yourself when you can’t put the ball in the basket,” said Doyle, who came off the bench for the first time this season. “It gets very frustrating at times.”
Doyle, Vukusic and senior Mohamed Hachad shot a combined 0 for 11 with six turnovers in the first half. Meanwhile, everything seemed to go right for the Illini.
All-American guard Dee Brown banked in a 3-pointer to beat the shot clock and give Illinois an early 13-4 lead. Another trey from Brown increased NU’s deficit to 15 with five minutes left before intermission.
“I went out there in the first half and I almost didn’t show up to play,” Hachad said. “I wasn’t that active on defense. The team can’t afford having me or Tim or Vedran not doing anything in the first half like that. I take a lot of blame.”
Hachad ended up being one of the few bright spots for the Cats. He shot 6 for 8 in the second half and scored a team-high 14 points. Vukusic finished with five points and missed 13 of his 14 field goal attempts.
“They stopped our good guys from doing much,” coach Bill Carmody said. “You get down that much on your home court, it’s discouraging.
“They defended us pretty well. The open shots we did have, we missed.”
After starting the conference season 2-0, the Cats have dropped four-straight games. In three of those losses, NU was down by at least 18.
The grueling Big Ten schedule only gets tougher now. Six of the Cats’ next seven conference games are against nationally ranked opponents.
“We knew the league was going to be tough top to bottom,” Doyle said. “The season is such a grind.
“I don’t think the team’s lacking confidence right now. We came out with a lot of energy. It just didn’t result in any points.”
Reach Gerald Tang at [email protected].
