The second half has not been kind to Northwestern in recent weeks. After blowing halftime leads to Illinois and then-No. 13 Michigan, NU was outscored 43-25 in the second stanza in its 77-57 loss to Wisconsin on Wednesday.
The Wildcats were down just a bucket at the halftime break, matching the Badgers shot for shot. However, things started to unravel for NU as soon as the second half began.
“We had some turnovers on offense and they were able to knock down some threes,” junior forward Drew Crawford said.
The game turned in Wisconsin’s favor with 17 minutes and eight seconds left in the second half when Badgers guard Jordan Taylor hit a three-pointer. Three minutes later, Wisconsin had pushed its two-point advantage into a 14-point lead and it never looked back. The Cats went into a 1-3-1 zone during the stretch, but the Badgers were able to find the openings and hit the open shots. Taylor ended the game with 15 points, nine of which came in this crucial stretch.
“I didn’t want to go to (the 1-3-1),” coach Bill Carmody said. “I thought, ‘Don’t give open threes to these guys,’ which we didn’t prevent them from doing. Then they started posting up a number of different guys and we just didn’t seem to be able to handle it…and they were scoring inside on us a little bit too much.”
Wisconsin’s second-half spurt forced NU to hurry up its offense and take contested shots, which it missed. NU shot 30 percent from the field in the second half including 2-of-9 from three point range. The cold shooting allowed the Badgers to slowly build their lead to as much as 23 points in the second half.
NU played a solid first half under the guidance of senior forward John Shurna and his 12 first-half points. Although only four Cats scored in the first period, NU’s stars, Shurna and Crawford, picked up the slack and scored 23 of NU’s 32 first-half points. Dave Sobolewski scored seven more points, mostly from driving to the basket, but the freshman point guard got into foul trouble and struggled to get to the lane in the second half.
“They knew we were (getting to the basket) in the first half,” Sobolewski said. “They made some halftime adjustments to make us play on the perimeter more.”
Shurna and Crawford proved why they were two of the Big Ten’s top scorers, as both players hit their season averages in the game. Shurna ended the game with a game-high 19 points with Crawford close behind with 17.
The continued clutch play of their stars was vitally important for the Cats, who were without the services of junior guard Alex Marcotullio and sophomore guard JerShon Cobb due to injuries. That left NU with seven scholarship players on the bench, something Wisconsin took advantage of. The Badgers’ bench outscored the Cats’ reserves 17-1 with sophomore walk-on guard James Montgomery III knocking down a free throw in the last minute to score his first collegiate point.
The depleted bench also took a toll on the Cats in the foul department. Four players had multiple fouls and NU seemed to give Wisconsin space as to not draw additional fouls. This allowed the Badgers to attack the small Cats’ lineup down low and open up the open three-point attempts.
NU now sets its eyes on Sunday when it travels to take on Minnesota. Carmody said he has not started looking forward because he is scared about what he saw against Wisconsin.
“I dread watching this tape tonight when I get home,” Carmody said. “There’s so many things that were correctable that I thought we had worked on. I thought we prepared for them. The gameplan certainly wasn’t to give them open looks.”
