Playing in the heart of his home city, Michael Thompson put the finishing touches on the biggest win of Northwestern’s young season.The junior point guard finished with 20 points, 16 coming in the second half, and sophomore John Shurna scored added a career-high 25 to propel the Wildcats to a stunning 72-58 upset win over No. 23 Notre Dame on Friday.NU (4-1) led by as many as six in the first half, but a late surge by the Fighting Irish tied the game with less than 10 seconds remaining. With time running out, Shurna took a few dribbles from half-court and drained a deep 3-pointer, which sent the Cats into the break with a 30-27 lead.”We had them back on their heels a little bit and we built a little bit of a lead,” coach Bill Carmody said. “They came back, and some different guys – Alex (Marcotullio), Johnny, and of course Mike – made plays, and that’s what good players do, they make plays in tough situations.”The real separation began about four minutes into the second half, when Thompson hit a trey to break a 38-38 tie and give NU a three-point advantage. In a four-minute span, the Cats went on a 12-0 run to extend their lead to 50-38. Though Notre Dame (5-1) cut the lead to 52-51 with just more than seven minutes remaining, NU never trailed the rest of the way.Freshman guard Alex Marcotullio, who finished with a career-high 13 points, played a major role in stopping the Fighting Irish run. Marcotullio made a 3-pointer and then hit two free throws to extend NU’s lead to 57-51. Once Notre Dame cut the score to 58-56, the freshman responded again with a critical long ball at the two-minute mark to give the Cats a five-point cushion.”It just seemed we were in control of the game,” Carmody said. “It was close at the half and all, but I thought the tempo was right for us, and we controlled the tempo which was real important against these guys because they score a lot of points.”Shutting down the Fighting Irish attack began with limiting the production of All-American Luke Harangody. The senior forward finished with 21 points and nine rebounds, but he connected on only 7-of-19 field goal attempts and struggled to get in an offensive rhythm.”If we went man-to-man or matchup, we were going to double team him probably, and we worked on that,” Carmody said. “But I just had some hunch, let’s just try the 1-3-1 to start the game and just see what happens and if not we’ll go to the things we worked on.”The 1-3-1 zone defense was effective, as NU totaled six steals and six blocks in the game. Marcotullio and senior guard Jeremy Nash had two steals each, while sophomore center Luka Mirkovic had three blocks.Carmody said he noticed his team was playing with more focus on the defensive end, which helped force the Fighting Irish into shooting just 31 percent from the field and 22 percent from beyond the arc.”They were alert, they knew the next thing that was going to happen,” Carmody said. “We almost had too much help – three guys were ready to jump and block (Ben Hansbrough’s) shot. The guys just had a little bounce and were on their toes.”With the win, NU will face Iowa State on Saturday. The Cyclones are led by 6-foot-10 junior forward Craig Brackins, who had 16 points and six rebounds in a 65-54 win over Saint Louis in the opening round of the Chicago Invitational Challenge.Carmody joked that he expected both Harangody and Brackins to be professionals by now, but he is looking forward to the challenge of facing another elite big man and a tough Iowa State defense.”They come after you,” Carmody said. “If you don’t get 20 turnovers, you almost played flawlessly. It’s going to be a different kind of game. These guys just say ‘We’re not going to let you run anything.'”

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