By the time the final buzzer sounded at the end of Northwestern’s 74-60 rout of Michigan on Tuesday night, the story of the game was all about John Shurna.
And it was a pretty good one. The junior forward, who has been more cold than hot since he injured his left ankle in late December, finished the night with a commanding eight rebounds and 24 points, 22 of which came in the first half alone. After putting up a dismal six points in NU’s overtime loss at No. 18 Michigan State on Saturday, Shurna’s comeback made for a compelling story.
It’s understandable then that the opening scene at Welsh-Ryan Arena, in which sophomore forward Drew Crawford scored eight of the Wildcats’ first 10 points, was more of a footnote than a feature.
“Crawford was the guy that jump-started us,” coach Bill Carmody said. “He came out, banged those shots right away, and he just put some life into us so the other guys could feed off of it.”
For a team that took seven minutes to bury its first field goal against the Spartans on Saturday, Crawford’s 3-pointer from the left wing just 24 seconds into the game signaled a promising start. When he hit another trey from the same spot a little more than a minute later, the crowd erupted. But he wasn’t done just yet. Barely five minutes into the first half, Crawford took an inbounds pass and made a layup to give the Cats a 10-8 lead over the Wolverines.
“It was really important for us to come out strong,” Crawford said. “It’s something that we struggled with last year, but I think we’ve gotten better this year. Someone always has to come out early if we’re going to win. Last night it just happened to be me.”
After Crawford’s eight-point downpour, Michigan (11-8, 1-5 Big Ten) would notch just one layup before NU (12-5, 3-4) went on an 8-0 run to jump out to an 18-10 lead, one it would not surrender for the rest of the game.
Though Crawford, who got into foul trouble early and played just 18 minutes all game, didn’t score again, he made the early shots that mattered for NU.
“I like the way we came out tonight,” Carmody said. “(We were) sort of blazing.”
As much of the focus has been centered on the up-and-down performance of Shurna, Crawford’s own scoring rut earlier in the conference season flew under the radar.
Though NU shot just 34 percent in its loss at then-No. 20 Illinois on Jan. 6, Crawford’s performance was particularly off. The sophomore posted just two points on the night, shooting 0-for-6 from behind the arc.
In NU’s win over Indiana (10-8, 1-4) three days later, Crawford looked a little better, notching eight points and a pair of rebounds but still was nowhere near his 22-point performance against Texas-Pan American in the nonconference season.
“Basketball is all about confidence,” Crawford said. “When I’m not confident it really does play into my abilities, and that’s something I’m working on.”
Crawford regained some of his offensive swagger in NU’s 90-71 demolition of Iowa last week when he led the Cats with 19 points, five of which were 3-pointers, and six rebounds. Since then Crawford has looked more like the player who earned All-Big Ten honorable mention and the media’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors in 2010.
Against Michigan State, Crawford picked up some of the offensive slack when Shurna mustered just six points, pacing NU with 16 points, including a clutch jumper at the end of regulation to give the Cats a 57-54 lead. Though NU dropped the game in overtime, it signaled an uptick in Crawford’s offensive productivity.
“Whenever anyone is down it falls to everyone else on the team to step up,” Crawford said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Johnny or anyone else on the team, we have to pitch in when that happens.”
NU will look for another strong all-around performance when it hosts SIU-Edwardsville at home on Thursday night in a nonconference matchup. NU will then face No. 20 Wisconsin on Sunday in its first conference meeting with the Badgers.
“We have some good momentum right now,” Crawford said. “But we also need to start winning on the road.”
