After John Shurna had 17 points at halftime, Illinois coach Bruce Weber challenged his guards to stop the senior forward in the second half. Illinois guards Brandon Paul and D.J. Richardson responded, holding Shurna to a lone three-pointer at the end of the game as the Fighting Illini escaped with a narrow one point victory.
“Shurna was special in the first half,” Weber said. “I challenged D.J. and Brandon. I said, ‘Shurna and Crawford are kicking your butts. You got to make a decision and stop them.’ We held (Shurna) to one field goal and that was late in the game.”
Shurna hit a three-pointer with two minutes and 22 seconds remaining in the first half to give Northwestern a 10-point lead.
However, the senior missed all six shots he took in a 22-minute span until finally nailing a three from the top of the arc to cut the Fighting Illini lead to a point with 37 seconds left. He took only two shots in the first 14 minutes of the second half, and the Wildcats scored only eight points in that span.
“In the second half they really clamped down on us,” coach Bill Carmody said. “We weren’t able to score. I thought they did a very good job defensively and you have to give them credit for that second-half defense.”
While Shurna was invisible for most of the second half, Drew Crawford tried to get his game back on track. After scoring two points on three shots in the first half, the junior forward took nine shots in the second stanza. Crawford only hit two of them, but he hit three free throws to end the game with nine points, half his season average.
Carmody said the difference between the two halves was NU’s offensive effort. He said the Cats got better looks in the first half and the missed opportunities came back to haunt the Cats as the game wore on. He said the Cats ran their normal offense in the second half, but were unable to get anybody open off penetration.
“We said, ‘Just run your stuff and see what kind of shots you get,'” Carmody said. “We tried to get at least two guys off a little bit on some drives and stuff. We just weren’t successful.”
While Carmody, Crawford and Shurna said the Illinois defense was pretty much the same in both halves, the Fighting Illini did make one small switch. After Paul and Richardson were on Crawford and Shurna respectively in the first half, the two flipped roles, which proved to make a large difference. Weber said he matched his defenders’ skill sets to the NU shooters in the first half, but realized there needed to be a switch.
“We thought Brandon would be a little better at containing Crawford,” Weber said. “We thought Shurna was more catch-and-shoot, so D.J.’s good at getting the shooters. Obviously, Shurna had his number in the first half. Brandon guarded him most of the second half and did a great job.”
Shurna said Paul’s bigger size was the only tangible difference he saw in the defense. However, the senior was adamant that the change did not affect his performance in the second half.
“(Illinois) played hard the whole game,” Shurna said. “I think they put Brandon Paul on me who’s a little bigger, but I missed shots, so it’s on me.”
