The difference between John Shurna’s two games against Illinois this season is night and day.
The senior forward scored 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the first half of the Jan. 4 game. He proceeded to score three points and make one shot in the second half as the Wildcats lost by a single point to the Fighting Illini. On Sunday, Shurna hit eight of his nine shots in the second stanza while scoring 17 of his game-high 24 points as Northwestern defeated Illinois 74-70.
“(Shurna) told me, ‘Give me the ball,'” coach Bill Carmody said of what was discussed during the first media timeout of the second half. “I’ve been ignoring him for three games in a row in the timeouts, so I think I probably should start listening to that boy.”
The senior’s takeover of the game was not surprising to those who know him on the court. However, the always-humble Shurna gave a lot of the credit to his teammates. He said he is just focused on whether or not his team wins and will do whatever it takes for the Cats to get a victory. Teammate Reggie Hearn said Shurna’s performance was an important part of why NU won.
“We all expect that out of Johnny and we know he can do that,” the junior guard said. “For him to come out and hit the shots he did at a time we really needed him was big for us, and we hope he can continue to do those type of things for us for the rest of the year.”
Shurna’s performance was reminiscent of the type of plays then-senior Michael Thompson made for the Cats last season. Thompson hit a big three-pointer for NU in its win last season against Illinois and finished the game with a game-high 22 points. Thompson visited practice two weeks ago and talked with the team. Shurna said Thompson told him to cherish the final moments of his college basketball career and to play as hard as he could.
When the Cats needed a shot in Sunday’s second half, it was Shurna who picked up the slack. After the Fighting Illini took a 4-point lead with 11 minutes and 51 seconds left, the senior responded with a three-pointer 13 seconds later to bring the game back within a point. Illinois took another 4-point lead two minutes later and again Shurna responded with a bucket. The two buckets were the bookends of a three-minute stretch in which Shurna scored 9 straight points for the Cats.
“My teammates were putting me in positions to score,” Shurna said. “We were focused on running through our offense hard and getting good shots.”
NU’s second-half resurgence was something it was missing in the last matchup with Illinois. The Cats shot just 24 percent from the field and did not hit a field goal for the first nine minutes and five seconds of the half in the matchup in Evanston.
In Champaign, Ill., the Cats had their halftime lead eliminated by a Fighting Illini 9-0 run to begin the half. But this time, NU did not fold. The Cats matched the Fighting Illini stride-for-stride in the middle 10 minutes of the second half, staying within 4 points at all times. NU eventually pulled away in the last five minutes and extended its lead to 8 points.
“Teams are always going to make their runs,” Shurna said. “It’s about how you respond to that. We fought back and a lot of guys came back and made big shots for us.”
The Cats struggled at the beginning of the Big Ten season with holding onto leads in the second half, but for the second straight game NU was able to hold onto its late lead. Hearn said this gives the Cats confidence as they head into the final parts of the regular season.
“There’s been a lot of talk that we could easily have been 6-3 (in conference) if we had closed out those pretty close games that we had,” Hearn said. “We closed a close game and in addition it was on the road. Looking forward we know we’re probably going to have a lot of close games in the Big Ten and if we do the things we did tonight, we can pull them out.”
