CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Northwestern should have beaten Illinois Wednesday night in Assembly Hall.

Not could – should.

This is a preposterous statement, I know. After all, the game had all the earmarks of a disaster.

Consider:

l Coach Bill Carmody found out during pre-game warm-ups that his team would be without Vedran Vukusic, who scores 34 percent of NU’s points.

l Illinois was coming off two straight losses, and no Fighting Illini team under coach Bruce Weber had ever lost three straight.

l Assembly Hall is the Panopticon of the Big Ten, a big hollow dome in which 16,618 orange-clad spectators squeeze inside and focus their collective withering gaze on five poor actors. (Esquire, by the way, once said orange was the color men most hate.)

l The Wildcats had lost 12 of their last 13 games against the Illini, including last year’s 84-48 embarrassment in Champaign.

This was supposed to be an old-fashioned stomping – not to be confused with the stamping Chief Illiniwek, whose halftime dance is utterly preposterous.

So what do I mean when I say the Cats should have won?

Because the reason they lost, according to Carmody and various players, is because they simply got tired.

I’m not disputing it isn’t true. All game, the Cats chased the Illini up and down the floor, from sideline to sideline. They scrambled to catch up with the Illini’s ball rotation in the motion offense. They trapped for much of the game because they had to create points, expending tons of energy.

NU rallied from 15-3 down to tie the game at 29. Then, after falling behind 44-31, the Cats made a run to pull within three, 48-45. It was exhausting even to watch.

“I’m sort of happy with the way our guys battled back,” Carmody said.

He should be. But his team’s inability to finish the job should leave everyone feeling uncomfortable.

The Cats had their chances. One of the key moments in the game occurred after Vince Scott drained two free throws to tie the game at 29 with 16:53 to go. Coming out of a media timeout, Moore missed a critical 3-pointer that might have given the team the momentum it needed to finish the job. NU, after all, has always been better at holding leads than chasing them down.

After the miss, Illinois’ Dee Brown drilled a 3. He ran down the court with his mouth gaping, showing off his trademark orange mouthguard. Suddenly Assembly Hall was so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think.

Moore missed another 3. On the other end, Brown launched another shot from beyond the arc, this time from in front of his bench. He made the shot, getting fouled in the process.

A free throw later, it was 39-29. In 52 seconds, Brown had erased 23 minutes of NU’s exhausting work to tie the game.

“Making a bunch of runs when you get down, it’s tough to keep going,” Moore said. “I think we did get a little winded, but we’ve just got to play through it.”

He’s right on both accounts. It’s understandable that the team got tired. But making no field goals in the last eight minutes? Getting outscored 15-2 to end a game? It may not be for a lack of effort, but it’s a crummy way to go down.

Fatigue, in sports, can often be the reason for a defeat. It just stinks when it is the reason.

It’s not even as if Illinois was using a deeper rotation. NU had eight players play as least 14 minutes, and only two – Hachad and Moore – play more than 30. Illinois had four – James Augustine, Brian Randle, Dee Brown and Rich McBride, all starters – play at least 34. Just seven Illini played a combined 190 minutes, while three played the other 10.

“We just wore down as a team,” Evan Seacat said. “Everybody was just tired.”

Just tired. Doesn’t exactly have “Nike ad” written over it, does it?

After the game, Carmody said he thought his team played better in Wednesday’s 16-point loss than earlier in the year when his team lost 58-47 to the Illini at home. That’s true enough. And as Doyle pointed out, “We can play with anybody in this league. (Against) one of the best teams, (in a) tough place to play, we definitely put on a good show.”

True again. Still, running out of gas is a tough way to lose.

Sports editor Anthony Tao is a Medill senior. He can be reached at [email protected].