With the Wildcats up two points with 29 seconds remaining and the shot clock winding down, sophomore point guard Michael Thompson drove through traffic looking for an open teammate.
Instead, the ball found its way in the hands of Ohio State guard Jon Diebler, who streaked down the court for the easy fast-break layup. With the score tied at 69, Wednesday’s contest at Welsh Ryan Arena appeared to have all the makings of yet another late-game Northwestern meltdown.
After a failed shot attempt down low, the Cats inbounded the ball with eight seconds left, and Thompson controlled their fate. This time the point guard drove the lane, drew help from the Buckeyes’ William Buford and found forward John Shurna on the wing.
The freshman calmly nailed the shot, and NU escaped with a 72-69 victory.
“That’s the moments you live for,” Shurna said. “You’ve got to step up and make the shot.”
Shurna almost did not have the chance to take that shot. Prior to the game he was given an I.V. injection after being sick since Tuesday. Coach Bill Carmody said he didn’t know Shurna would play until minutes before game time.
Moreover, Shurna wasn’t in the game for the five minutes leading up to the last play. He was substituted immediately before his shot, after NU’s initial attempt at a game-winning field goal – a shot in the paint by freshman center Kyle Rowley – yielded a loose ball last touched by the Buckeyes.
“It was how the last couple of games should have been,” junior forward Kevin Coble said. “We were right there in all those games, and watching it slip away, you sort of saw that all of our games have been the same.”
Earlier, it didn’t appear the Cats would get the chance to hold on to a lead. Ohio State went into the locker room ahead by nine, and extended the advantage to 12 on one of Jon Diebler’s eight 3-pointers.
Only three players scored for NU (14-10, 5-8 Big Ten) in the first half, and 25 of the team’s 28 points came from Coble and senior guard Craig Moore. But after the Diebler three, Rowley converted a basket and drew the foul for a three-point play. That marked the beginning of a 21-3 NU run propelled by 11 points from players not named Coble or Moore.
In addition to Rowley’s three-point play, Shurna scored four of his nine points during the run, and junior guard Jeremy Nash contributed four of his seven points in that stretch.
“It was definitely a game of runs,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. “Unfortunately, they had the last one.”
Though the supporting cast contributed to NU’s run, it was Coble and Moore who scored 49 of the team’s 72 points. Moore scored 23 points and sunk seven shots from downtown, while Coble compiled 26 points on 67 percent shooting.
Ohio State (17-7, 7-6) built its spurt on the shoulders of Diebler. The sophomore guard had a game-high 28 points on 8-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc.
“I kept taking the guy out,” said Carmody of the players guarding Diebler. “If he made a shot on you, I took the guy out. He’s a great shooter, he’s shooting (40 percent from 3-point range) in conference.”
But the Cats had little trouble stifling the Buckeyes’ leading scorer, Evan Turner. The sophomore forward finished with 14 points but turned the ball over eight times. Five of those came in the second half, when Carmody called for the 1-3-1 zone.
“I’m happy for our guys because they’ve been suffering for a week after losing to Illinois and losing to Michigan,” Carmody said. “We’ve had 12-point leads in the second half this year and lost them, so it’s great for our guys to reverse that and come back.”
