Ann Arbor, Mich. – Craig Moore set a school record for 3-pointers made with eight, but the last one mattered most.
With just a minute remaining in the game and Northwestern down one on the road against Michigan, Moore launched his 12th 3-pointer of the game, and it fell threw the bottom of the net for both his 25th point and a two-point Cats’ lead. After a missed Wolverines shot, the Wildcats broke their 20-game Big Ten losing streak, defeating Michigan 62-60.
“You can’t say it until you’ve won, but we’ve been playing a lot better,” NU coach Bill Carmody said. “It feels great to finally get a win, not just for me, but for all the guys. They’ve been playing so hard the past few games.”
The last time the Cats won a conference game was Feb. 10, 2007, and the team made its first one this season interesting.
NU started the game on a 16-2 run, but Michigan answered with a 10-0 run of its own. The Cats responded, and led by Moore and a resurgent Ivan Peljusic, the Cats were on their way to establishing a 19-point lead.
Peljusic played his heart out, a career-high 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting, and grabbing seven rebounds.
The redshirt freshman forward highlighted his performance with an emotional dunk over Michigan forward DeShawn Sims and the first 3-pointer of his career.
“I’m happy and proud of him,” sophomore forward Kevin Coble said. “He kept working the last two years and had been slow coming around, but I hope what he did today continues.”
Coble finished with 16 points and six rebounds and made all six of his free throws as well.
The play of NU’s big men helped the Cats stay almost even with the Wolverines on the boards, finishing the game with just three fewer than Michigan.
“Sterling (Williams) was a big part of that,” NU coach Bill Carmody said. “He had two big rebounds early in the first half, but it was a nice team effort.”
While Moore had the hot hand, the rest of the Cats couldn’t find their shooting touch. In the first half, NU players not named Moore missed all nine 3-point attempts and shot just 38 percent from the floor.
But poor shooting didn’t just plague the Cats.
Michigan freshman sensation Manny Harris was held to 4-of-12 shooting, though he finished with 17 points thanks to his seven free throws.
Although his team had troubles, Michigan coach John Beilein said he still thought NU played beautiful basketball.
The Cats were able to get easy baskets in the first half with Coble and Peljusic getting good inside looks from both Moore and freshman guard Michael Thompson, who both finished with three assists.
While Thompson was having no trouble finding his teammates, his shot wasn’t going in.
He finished with just two points on 1-of-7 shooting, but also went the whole game without a turnover.
“He got some good drives to the basket,” Carmody said, “but he missed a couple of lay-ups he normally makes. Still, he did a good job running the team and setting things up so Craig could be free to make his own shot.”
When Moore wasn’t shooting, the team struggled. The Cats had their 19-point lead vanish and become a one-point deficit in the final two minutes. And even though Moore hadn’t been the most clutch shooter on the Cats’ roster the past few games, he gave his team hope, even as that disheartened feeling started to creep into Carmody’s mind.
But after the clock ticked down to 0:00, the feeling of despair was gone.
“It’s about time,” Coble said. “For me it, was right in front of us, almost taunting us, saying, ‘You can’t win.'”
Now they have.
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