All the signs pointed to a Northwestern loss at Indiana on Wednesday night.
The Wildcats had lost six of their eight road games this season, most recently in blowout fashion at the hands of a struggling Minnesota squad. NU is also just getting past a stomach bug that has spread throughout the team and victimized several key contributors.
And if that was not enough, the Cats had not won in Bloomington, Ind. since 1968.
NU ignored the signs, pulling away in the second half on its way to a 75-53 victory over the Hoosiers.
“This team has been resilient,” coach Bill Carmody said. “We’ve had some tough goes, and we’re hanging in there. To win like that on an away court, I know Indiana’s having a tough year right now, but still (we) had to execute and (we) did.”
This is not the first time NU (15-11, 6-9 Big Ten) has demonstrated its resiliency. Earlier in the season, the team defeated then-No. 18 Minnesota after losing its previous two games.
While the final margin calls to mind a blowout, NU started slowly in the first half. Five minutes into the game, the Cats were down by eight points.
Over the next 10 minutes, the momentum shifted, and Indiana turned the ball over seven times, converting just two of its 12 attempts from the field.
“We didn’t start out in the 1-3-1,” said Carmody at halftime, referring to the Cats’ stifling zone defense. “That’s probably my mistake. We started slowly, but we sort of stayed with it, and (the zone) has been pretty effective so far.”
Behind that zone and a slow-it-down mentality on the offensive end, NU went on a 19-5 run. Freshman center Luka Mirkovic came into the game for classmate Kyle Rowley and scored six consecutive points during the spurt. Off-the-ball movement led to an open 3-pointer for senior guard Craig Moore and two easy layups for freshman forward John Shurna.
“Once we settled down and weren’t taking quick shots, we found the open man,” Moore said. “And we had confidence in that guy that he would hit the shot.”
On the heels of that run, the Cats went into the locker room at halftime ahead 30-25.
Indiana (6-21, 1-14) was able to keep the game close for the first seven minutes of the second half, trailing just 41-39 with 13:37 remaining. Suddenly, NU made it rain from downtown, nailing 6-of-7 from beyond the arc after shooting just 3-of-9 in the first half.
Coming off of his lowest-scoring game in two years, Moore shot 5-of-7 from 3-point range, including two from his comfort zone well beyond the line, to finish with a team-leading 17 points.
“When he made those threes at the end,” Mirkovic said, “I was running by and I said to myself: ‘Oh my god. That was just big time.'”
Indiana guard Devan Dumes, who torched NU for 26 points in the teams’ first meeting last month, was held to three points. Meanwhile, sophomore point guard Michael Thompson reached double digits in scoring for the first time since that meeting. The point guard had 16 points, along with five assists and three steals.
Sitting at 15-11 with three regular-season games remaining,the team is guaranteed to finish at least .500 and receive consideration for the National Invitational Tournament. But the Cats are looking to use this game as a springboard.
“I think it’s a road win that we can build on,” Moore said. “We’re home against Iowa (on Saturday), but then we’re on the road for two more. I think this is a big step in the right direction, where we feel comfortable on the road, in another gym and with the crowd against us.”
