With a simple jab step, Drew Crawford sent his Indiana defender flying, giving him a wide-open lane to drive. He finished the play with a emphatic slam.
Those two points gave Northwestern a lead just seconds after tip-off that it wouldn’t let go, as it coasted to a 78-61 victory that rarely seemed in doubt.
“I did talk before the game about how we have to play with emotion,” coach Bill Carmody said. “That (dunk) probably did help us.”
The Wildcats dominated early, opening up a 21-6 lead. In the first eight minutes, the Cats hit four 3s and allowed as many field goals as blocked shots.
“We didn’t have a good start,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. “Some things didn’t go right for us offensively. Then we came down and we didn’t get stops defensively.”
NU (16-7, 5-6 Big Ten) was aggressive on offense, drawing enough fouls to get into the bonus before they committed their first foul. Center Luka Mirkovic continued his streak of improved play by earning six trips to the line in the opening period, scoring nine of his 14 points.
‘”I’m a hard worker,” Mirkovic said. “Every day I try to improve my game, and it’s paying off. I’m comfortable with where I’m at right now.”
From beyond the arc, NU was even deadlier, hitting six of nine 3-point attempts.
“We did not do a good job early on of understanding how good a job they do from the 3-point line,” Crean said. “We had our hands in their chins rather than our hands in their faces.”
Indiana (9-13, 3-7) would cut the lead to nine shortly before the end of the half, but NU ended the half the same way they started it. Mike Capocci dunked the ball after getting open on a backdoor cut to give the Cats a 40-29 lead that would remain in double digits.
The Cats didn’t let up in the second half, pushing their advantage to as many as 20 points. Defensively they didn’t allow any 3s while pouring in 38 more points on offense to give them 78 for the game. The 78 points were the Cats’ highest total in a Big Ten regulation win since beating Wisconsin 82-71 in 1995.
Indiana cut the lead to 11 with seven minutes remaining, but it was too late, as NU was still able to empty its bench in the games final minutes.
“We had to play an uphill battle,” Crean said. “We never were able to get it going to a point where we really threatened in this game because of the lead we gave them early on.”
The win came with a surprisingly balanced attack for the Cats, as all five starters finished in double digits. NU got 13 more from its bench, a unit that has underperformed of late. It was a performance that cheered up even the difficult-to-please Carmody.
“Every coach would like that,” Carmody said. “You have some guys that are capable this year of going in the 30s, 20s on any given day, but today was a really good team effort, and I was really proud. I enjoyed watching it.”
Carmody’s squad truly played a team game, dishing out 21 assists on 25 field goals, a high number even for the team which leads the nation in assists-per-field goal average. Every starter recorded a block as a part of the team’s season-high nine rejections.
“That’s the thing about this team,” Jeremy Nash said. “Everybody can do something special. And we believe in each other. It’s not a surprise that somebody else scored because we know that we all can score. “[email protected]
