Northwestern awoke from its offensive slumber too late to fully realize a comeback, and perhaps its Big Dance dreams, in a 75-66 loss at Michigan on Wednesday night.
Despite making a 14-0 run to narrow the Wolverines’ lead to one with barely two minutes left in regulation, the Wildcats (14-9, 4-8 Big Ten) could not overcome a potent Michigan (15-10, 5-7) offense that led for more than half of the game and rocked NU 40-24 in the paint.
“We were, well, what’s the word to describe it? Lackadaisical,” sophomore forward Drew Crawford said. “We just didn’t have the right energy all game.”
NU left for Ann Arbor with its fair share of momentum, having taken down then-No. 24 Illinois 71-70 Saturday, its first defeat of a ranked team this year. It was a win that reinvigorated talk of the Cats approaching the NCAA Tournament bubble if they could pull of strong, near-perfect finish to the conference season. The Cats also held the upper-hand in the series, having downed the Wolverines 74-60 in January courtesy of a 22-point first-half performance from junior forward John Shurna.
But this was a different Michigan squad than NU faced less than a month ago. The Wolverines entered Wednesday’s matchup having managed recent wins over both Michigan State and Penn State.
“For whatever reason, we weren’t ready,” coach Bill Carmody said. “I really thought we were prepared, and we practiced for this, but clearly we weren’t ready.”
After draining the shot clock in both its win over No. 24 Illinois on Saturday and its one-point loss to No. 1 Ohio State the week before, NU has relied on a slower offensive tempo of late. But the problem Wednesday night had more to do with productivity than pacing: NU hobbled out of the gates, managing to get on the scoreboard just once in the opening five minutes to concede an early 7-2 Michigan lead.
The Cats didn’t finish the half much better than they started, connecting on just eight of 25 attempts from the field. Shurna, NU’s leading scorer, saw just his second game action since sustaining a concussion at Minnesota two weeks ago. The junior forward played 25 minutes and pitched in four points – significantly off his 18.5 points-per-game average.
Crawford proved NU’s most efficient offensive player in the first half, pitching in eight of the team’s season-low, single-half 19 points before break.
“It’s a credit to Michigan’s defense,” senior guard Michael Thompson said. “They did a good job of closing down on us and disrupting our offense and making us play their game. And when we did get open looks, we weren’t knocking them down.”
The Cats’ less-than-assertive offensive start was compounded by their inability to make stops on the defensive end, especially when it came to thwarting the Wolverines’ Jordan Morgan. The powerhouse center gave NU’s big men fits in the paint and capitalized on mismatches on the back end of pick-and-rolls.
Morgan opened the game with 17 points to give Michigan the 34-19 lead at halftime, and he would finish the night with a career-high 27 points.
Overall, Michigan out-rebounded NU 38-25.
“They were controlling the paint,” Thompson said. “Clearly, that’s their comfort zone, and we let them play their game.”
NU made a run late in the second half courtesy of Thompson, NU’s reigning king of comebacks. After being held scoreless in the opening half, he scored the first seven points of the second half to put the Cats back in contention and force a Michigan timeout with the score at 34-26. And Thompson was just getting warmed up.
The senior would finish the half with a team-high 17 points as NU led a late surge to cut Michigan’s lead to one with two minutes to play. He had some help from Crawford, who finished the night with 16 points, and freshman guard JerShon Cobb, who pitched in 14 points and a team-high three steals.
“That’s what Juice does for us,” Crawford said. “You’ve seen it all season. He’s always there to try to bring us back in when we need him.”
But as they did all night long, the Wolverines responded, scoring the game’s final eight points to secure the win and even out the conference series. Morgan’s stellar post performance was reinforced by freshman guard Tim Hardaway Jr.’s 17 points and 10 rebounds – enough to notch his first career double-double and help end NU’s three-game winning streak against Michigan.
NU will travel to Penn State on Sunday for its first conference matchup with the Nittany Lions.
“Coach said this in the locker room and it’s true: At this point, there are no moral victories for us, ” Crawford said. “We’ve got to get wins.”
