By Philip Rossman-ReichThe Daily Northwestern

Northwestern responded to an early second-half run by Purdue to close the Boilermakers lead to five. But then NU disappeared and Purdue got hot.

Senior guard David Teague responded to the Cats’ run with his fifth 3 of the game, sparking a 16-3 run to put away the Cats 73-50 in West Lafayette, Ind., on Saturday.

NU (13-17, 2-14 Big Ten) made only five field goals in the final 15:18 of the game. The Cats made one basket between the time they closed the lead to five and the time freshman Jeremy Nash made a lay-up with 5:54 to play. It was a span of more than nine minutes.

By then, the Boilermakers (20-10, 9-7) had expanded their lead to 20.

“We just couldn’t sustain that offensive momentum we had,” freshman forward Kevin Coble said. “It was a little disappointing letting them get away in the second half after such a good first half.”

Purdue started the second half with a seven point lead. Within two minutes, the Boilermakers scored seven points – capped by a 3 from David Teague after sophomore guard Sterling Williams missed a lay-up.

Coach Bill Carmody called a timeout. Then NU responded.

The Cats followed the Boilermakers’ 7-2 run to open the half with a 10-3 run of their own. NU used steals and strong defense to cut the lead to five in the next three minutes.

“I told the guys at halftime, we didn’t have to play a perfect game to beat them,” Carmody said. “I thought we went along well with our gameplan.

“I think they wore us down. They got better looks in the second half and we were a little slow getting out to them.”

NU didn’t allow Purdue shooters to get hot from beyond the arc or allow Purdue to gain a large advantage on the boards in the first half unlike in the previous meeting.

That changed in the second half.

Purdue went 3 of 9 from beyond the arc in the first half. The Boilermakers finished the game 9 of 18.

Teague tied his career high by hitting 6-of-10 3s en route to scoring 23 points.

The Cats played even with the Boilermakers on the boards in the first half, but Purdue out-rebounded NU 24-9 in the second half and grabbed seven offensive boards in the second half to help Purdue pull away.

“We never turned the game into a one possession game,” senior forward Tim Doyle said. “The rebounding thing is going to be misleading because we missed so many shots. We could never put up a good scoring run together.”

Purdue shot 60 percent from the field, while NU shot 33 percent.

Coble led the Cats with 15 points – 11 coming in the first half. Doyle scored eight points and had five of NU’s 10 assists. The five assists put him three away from breaking NU’s single-season record.

Teague scored 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the Boilermakers. Senior forward Carl Landry recorded a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore guard Chris Lutz chipped in 14 – shooting 3 of 5 from beyond the arc.

Both Carmody and Doyle said Landry was the difference in the second half. They said Purdue tried to get him the ball inside more, opening up shots on the perimeter as the Cats collapsed into the pain to defend him.

The Cats finished 10th in the conference and will face seventh-seeded Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday.

Coble said he feels the team can play with anybody in the conference, but he said the team needs to pull together good stretches to compete.

“I think we’re seeing some glimpses of how we can be,” Coble said. “We just need to pull that all together and make a scoring run.”

Reach Philip Rossman-Reich at [email protected].