By Ben Larrison The Daily Northwestern

CHICAGO – For most of its first round matchup in the Big Ten Tournament, Northwestern appeared to be on the brink of being blown out by Michigan State. And though a late comeback gave the Wildcats a shot at forcing overtime, an errant pass would ultimately end their season.

Despite a big second-half push, NU fell short of the Spartans, losing 62-57 Thursday at the United Center in Chicago.

“It’s not what you like – to go out on the first day – because you don’t get a real flavor of the tournament to tell you the truth. But I thought we did the best we could,” NU coach Bill Carmody said.

As they have so many times this season, the Cats (13-18) played solid defense in the game’s opening minutes but were unable to capitalize on offense. While they held Michigan State (22-10)scoreless for the first three-plus minutes, NU had only one basket of its own – a Kevin Coble jumper – and soon was down 5-2.

But after tying the score at 5, the Cats completely collapsed. Led by all-Big Ten junior Drew Neitzel, the Spartans went on a devastating 23-7 run, including 10-straight points over a five-minute span. At one point during the stretch Neitzel, who finished with a game-high 20 points, was outscoring the entire NU team 12-11.

“We weren’t able to handle Neitzel,” Carmody said. “He had 20 points, but it seemed very economical to me. He was hitting the right shots and taking the right shots and making the right passes. We struggled to guard him.”

Nearly 15 minutes into the first half, the Cats were shooting a paltry 4 of 18 from the field, compared to 11-of-16 shooting by Michigan State. Suffering from both offensive and defensive ineptitude, NU trailed 28-12 with about four minutes remaining before halftime. From there, the Cats went a on a mini-run, but still trailed 32-23 at the break on just 8-of-25 shooting.

“We could have been blown out in the first half, but Craig (Moore) hit a shot at the buzzer and we just hung in there.”

Though Coble hit a 3-pointer to get NU to within six to start the second half, the Spartans answered and once again threatened to run away with their tournament opener.

But after a 10-3 burst pushed the Michigan State edge to 13, senior Tim Doyle led the Cats back into the game. A six-minute, 14-5 NU run helped cut the Spartans’ lead to just four with fewer than seven minute left to play.

Despite the Cats run, Michigan State was quickly up by double-digits once again. But with key 3-point shooting and solid defense, NU refused to go away. When Moore hit a 3 with 47 seconds remaining, the Cats had snuck their way back into a one-possession game, down 60-57. The sophomore finished the day with 15 points, connecting on five shots from beyond the arc.

Following a Spartans miss, it looked as if NU would have a chance to tie the game on its final shot. But freshman Jeremy Nash, who had pulled down the defensive rebound only seconds earlier, threw the ball past an unprepared Moore and out-of-bounds. Travis Walton then hit a pair of free throws for Michigan State to seal it.

Moore would later say that Nash did nothing wrong on the flubbed pass, and that there was merely a miscommunication between the two players.

“I kind of looked at Coach (Carmody) to see what he was doing, and I looked at the clock and the ball flew past my face,” Moore said.

Reach Ben Larrison at [email protected].