John Shurna’s first-half performance during Northwestern’s 97-78 win at Northern Illinois was much like the rest of his team’s – timid at best.
As the Wildcats (1-0) scraped away with a five-point lead over the Huskies (0-1) at the break, the junior forward, a second team all-conference pick last season, was a dismal 0-for-2 shooting from the perimeter, notching four of his six points on free throws in the first half.
Not exactly the sort of numbers likely to garner Shurna the Big Ten Player of the Week. Rather, it was his second-half performance that earned him the honor for the third time in his career.
“I struggled in the first half shooting,” Shurna said. “But I have to give credit to my teammates, they had confidence in me, and they kept trying to find me in the second half despite that. Once I started making them, they were finding me in good spots.”
It took just 36 seconds in the second half for Shurna to take charge of NU’s season opener and reverse his first-half shooting woes. Open on the right wing in the first minute of the second half, Shurna sunk what would prove to be the first of his career-high seven 3-pointers – one shy of the Big Ten record - and the beginning of the most efficient 10 minutes of his career. During that time, Shurna put away 22 of his career-tying 31 points of the night and swung the momentum decisively in NU’s favor, leading the team to its highest scoring true road game since 1975.
“That’s one thing about Johnny,” sophomore guard Drew Crawford said. “When he has a bad first half he completely forgets about it, and in the second half he moves on and he knows what he has to do. He got hot. He started hitting them.”
It was the sort of performance that NU needed after a less-than-assertive opening.
Northern Illinois looked considerably sharper in the first half, playing around NU’s man-to-man defense to go 5-for-6 in field goal attempts and claim the early 13-5 lead. Guard Xavier Silas put up a team-high 14 points in the first half and proved difficult for NU to contain.
At the other end of the court, the Cats struggled to return fire, shooting only 1-of-13 from the field.
“It was a scary first game,” coach Bill Carmody said. “They came out, and we weren’t able to stop them. They were certainly ready to play, and I don’t know if we weren’t, but they certainly knocked us back.”
Carmody quickly switched his defense to the 1-3-1 zone that forced Northern Illinois’ 17 turnovers in NU’s opener last season. The Cats generated nine turnovers as they forced the Huskies to make dangerous cross-court passes.
With Northern Illinois’ offense under control, Crawford quickly got to work. The sophomore put away 12 points during a 19-3 run by NU to claim a 24-16 advantage.
“That’s always a good feeling when you start hitting your shot,” Crawford said. “Whatever it takes to get the team going and get the momentum shifting is what you got to do, and I was happy to help to do that for the team.”
Shurna’s second half tear capitalized on that momentum and gave NU an edge it would never concede thanks to strong performances all over the court. Junior center Luka Mirkovic dominated the boards with 10 rebounds, seven of which came on offense, and senior point guard Michael Thompson handed out six assists and 15 points on the night. Freshman guard JerShon Cobb did not play due to a hip flexor injury.
Next up for NU is a trip south to play Texas-Pan American on Wednesday night.
“Last year we had some difficulties on the road,” Shurna said. “Here we started off shooting kind of poorly, but we came around and came through at the end. That’s the important thing to be able to do the rest of the season.”
