Northwestern’s 12-0 run in the final minutes of its 65-62 loss to No. 18 Michigan State on Monday night had all the makings of a good comeback story.
There was the packed home crowd at Welsh-Ryan Area, the heroic senior point guard Michael Thompson, who put away nine points in less than four minutes and, of course, the upset factor that would have made a win particularly sweet for the Wildcats.
“It was a nice little comeback for us,” coach Bill Carmody said. “Mike decided, ‘enough’s enough. I’m going to call my own number a little bit.’ That’s what we did basically on all those timeouts. I just said, ‘Keep the ball in your hands and make something happen.'”
It was another cliche that won out, though, as NU faced a three-point deficit with a mere nine-tenths of a second left to play: too little, too late.
Sophomore forward Drew Crawford had no choice but to offer up an awkward three-point attempt as time expired.
“We had high energy, and it was exciting,” Crawford said. “Just a couple of plays there at the end didn’t go our way.”
But the play hadn’t been going NU’s way for much of the game.
The physical Michigan State (10-4, 2-0 Big Ten) defense outmatched NU’s(9-3, 0-2) usually dynamic Princeton offense, cutting off its back-door options. To quantify the sort of defense the Spartans played, the Cats went to the free throw line 20 times before Michigan State earned its first trip.
“They just played us physical,” said Thompson, who finished with 12 points, four assists and four steals. “When we were cutting back door, they were bumping the cutters, and for the entire forty minutes they played us that way. We still got in the positions we wanted be in we just didn’t do a good job of knocking down shots we needed to.”
Crawford paced the Cats with 17 points and eight rebounds, but NU had a hard time hitting its stride and trailed Michigan State for most of the game. In the first half, the Cats posted a 33.3 percent field goal percentage and trailed the Spartans 35-31 at the break. Helping to drive Michigan State’s offense all night was junior forward Draymond Greene, who put up 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Spartans.
Though junior forward John Shurna opened the game with an assertive three-pointer and finished with 11 points on the night, he was unable to front the sort of potent offensive threat from beyond the arc that has earned him Big Ten Player of the Week honors twice this season.
Coming off an ankle injury he suffered in NU’s 70-47 trouncing of St. Mary’s last week, Shurna was still not totally physically recovered, Carmody said.
Without Shurna in prime form, NU managed just a 31.6 field goal percentage overall and struggled to get points in the paint – something Michigan State made look easy, notching 30 to NU’s 17 on the night.
“I don’t think Shurna is 100 percent,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “I asked him after, and he said it was pretty good, but watching him move earlier in the year and watching him move these last two games, I don’t think he’s quite there, and you know they need him. He’s their best player.”
