It might have been Senior Night at Welsh-Ryan Arena, but the Wildcats were led by a freshman on Wednesday.
Freshman guard Alex Marcotullio had his first game in double-digits since the second Big Ten contest of the season, and Northwestern coasted to a 72-49 victory over Chicago State.
It was the Cats’ 19th victory of the season, setting a school record for wins in their final home game of the year.
“It’s been a good season thus far,” senior guard Jeremy Nash said. “But there’s still more to come.”
NU (19-11) needed some time before taking a commanding lead. After scoring the game’s first five points, the Cats got overconfident, as sophomore forward John Shurna tried to connect with freshman forward Drew Crawford on a pair of alley-oops. Two failed attempts earned Shurna nothing more than a trip to the bench as the Cougars (8-22) rallied to tie the game.
“That’s never a good idea,” coach Bill Carmody said. “So in the timeout I said, ‘I don’t want to see anymore.’ And after that he throws one into the seats. So I just wanted to make sure he heard me.”
That was as close as Chicago State came, as NU scored the next five points to pull away from the Cougars. The Cats stumbled through the rest of the first half, turning the ball over eight times and allowing Chicago State to cut its deficit to within two points multiple times.
“We tried to put some emphasis by pushing the ball,” Nash said. “But we didn’t do a good job taking care of it.”
The Cougars’ 2-3 zone troubled the Cats, and NU had to overpass around Chicago State’s defense.
With a 25-23 lead and 3:35 left in the half, the Cats were able to muster some momentum.
A loose ball squirted away to Shurna, who found Nash ahead of the pack. The senior threw it down for an emphatic dunk.
“I started off kind of sluggish,” Nash said. “I was like ‘I hope this doesn’t keep up the whole night.’ And then I got a dunk, and that kind of opened me up a little bit.”
The Cats extended their lead to 10 by intermission, and they put together a 12-3 run to open the second half. NU spent the last 11 minutes of the game with at least a 20-point lead.
“There were less turnovers,” Nash said. “The second half speaks for itself.”
The biggest difference between the halves was defense. After a mediocre first period, the Cougars hit only 5-of-29 shots from the field in the second. Chicago State didn’t shoot a field goal until the 11:41 mark of the period.
“We were just more active,” Carmody said. “They didn’t shoot well.”
On the other side of the court, the Cats faced little defensive resistance. NU shot 49 percent for the game, nailing 13 shots from downtown.
The leader of the barrage was Marcotullio, who made 5-of-7 attempts from beyond the arc. The freshman guard had been an important part of the Cats’ rotation in the beginning of the year, hitting double-digits five times through NU’s first 13 games. On Jan. 2 against Michigan State, Marcotullio netted a career-high 16 points. After that he disappeared, not connecting on multiple attempts from downtown until Wednesday.
“We’re just waiting for him,” Carmody said. “It’s got to come from within. You’ve got to break out of slumps on your own unless there’s something technical involved, and there’s nothing there.”
Marcotullio was back to his old self against Chicago State, as his five 3s were the most he had connected on all year.
“I got the looks tonight and fortunately I knocked them down,” Marcotullio said. “I’ve been working, waiting my turn. Coach has counted on me to make shots and that’s what I’ve got to do.”
Marcotullio also delivered three assists and forced a steal from his position at the head of NU’s 1-3-1 zone.
“He’s been getting his minutes,” Carmody said. “And tonight he delivered.”
The win was the 57th since Nash arrived at NU, allowing him to tie a record for most wins by a senior class.
“It was the last home game,” Nash said. “And you want to go out with a bang.” [email protected]