For a program that has become more than familiar with hard times on the hardwood, Sunday’s loss has a familiar sting.
Dreadful shooting, poor interior defense and a lack of offensive rhythm doomed Northwestern during its 65-41 drubbing at the hands of Penn State, effectively dashing any dreams of a Big Dance bid.
“(We haven’t scored inside) most of the year, but we’ve been balanced out a little bit because we’ve shot the ball pretty well from long range,” coach Bill Carmody said. “Tonight we couldn’t knock down any shots.”
NU’s fifth-straight loss to Penn State is made more painful by the fact that the Cats were their own worst enemy on Sunday night. Against Penn State (13-11, 6-7 Big Ten), the only team in the Big Ten that gives up more points than it scores, NU (14-10, 4-9) shot 35 percent from the field and 10 percent from beyond the arc. Normally a fallback for the Cats, NU couldn’t get into a groove from three-point land. The Cats missed their first 14 attempts from beyond the arc, and freshman guard JerShon Cobb notched NU’s first three-pointer midway through the second half.
“We didn’t make a three until clearly the game was over,” Carmody said.
A sluggish start for both teams allowed the Cats to stay close in the early-going. Sophomore forward Drew Crawford notched NU’s first five points, and senior guard Michael Thompson chipped in two layups to give the Cats an early 11-10 advantage. However, NU managed just four points over the final 12-and-a-half minutes of the opening period. The Cats’ 15 first-half points was their lowest output of any half all year, and their fewest first-half points since 2002.
“In the beginning (Thompson) had a couple shots towards the end of the shot clock that were off the bounce. Those were okay,” Carmody said. “I felt some of the other ones weren’t really that close. We shot the lights out in shoot around. It’s hard to figure, we might have used them up.”
Still, NU’s historically bad first half didn’t put the game out of reach. The Cats came out of the locker room down nine, but Penn State opened the second half on a 20-5 run and never looked back.
“We had good shots,” Cobb said. “We just couldn’t knock them down.”
Cobb’s production may have been the lone bright spot for NU. The newcomer recorded both of NU’s 3-pointers, finishing with 10 points and recording his third-straight double-digit performance.
While Cobb surged, junior forward John Shurna struggled. NU’s leading scorer managed seven points on 3-of-8 shooting. Shurna, who began the conference season averaging a tad more than 23 points-per-game, hasn’t scored in double digits since an 81-70 loss at Minnesota on Jan. 26, the same game the junior suffered a concussion after tumbling into the basket.
“We tried to see if we could get something going for (Shurna),” Carmody said. “He’s just not the same guy he was five weeks ago.”
The Cats’ ice-cold shooting was exacerbated by their poor play in the paint. Big men Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti combined for six points, four rebounds and six fouls.
To add injury to insult, sophomore guard Alex Marcotullio may have dislocated a finger defending a 3-pointer early in the second half.
If Sunday’s low point wasn’t a season-worst 41-point performance, a 2-for-21 mark from beyond the arc or Marcotullio’s injury,, it may be this: Not only have the Cats’ NCAA dreams gone down the drain, but they’re in jeopardy of not qualifying for theNational Invitational Tournament. NU has five games left, with a pair of those coming against ranked teams, No. 25 Minnesota and No. 13 Wisconsin and several more coming against the resurgent Iowa and Penn State squads. Two 17-win teams qualified for last year’s NIT, but with a much larger NCAA bubble this year, the NIT will have more teams from which to choose.
After a sluggish, grind-it-out style of offense helped NU stay competitive against No. 1 Ohio State and Illinois, Carmody said change might be in the cards as his squad prepares to battle Iowa on Thursday.
“We sort of changed the way we were thinking because of the way Shurna really wasn’t getting up and down the court, and I thought that was pretty effective against Illinois and Ohio State,” Carmody said. “We’re going to have to rethink that against Iowa…. We might just have to speed it up again.”
