After six lead changes and 13 ties, Northwestern was unable to keep its fate in its own hands.
The Wildcats were stuck in a back-and-forth battle with Minnesota all night, but ultimately fell to the Golden Gophers 75-68 in overtime.
“We’ve had a lot of close games this year,” senior forward John Shurna said. “(Minnesota) came up with the extra play and they hit a lot of 3s. It was disappointing, but you have to give credit to Minnesota.”
From the opening tip Andre Hollins prove to be a thorn in NU’s side. The guard scored 13 of Minnesota’s first 15 points to lead the Golden Gophers to an early 15-5 lead. Hollins ended the game with 25 points including the tying layup with 55 seconds left to play in regulation.
“He’s a good player,” coach Bill Carmody said. “He shot the ball well, and he’s just a tough guy to guard. Like I said, in the first half he was making 3s, and then in the second half a couple times when we turned the ball over towards the end of the game, he just took it to the basket and sort of — deep this way, that way, and got to the rim.”
The Cats continuously switched between their 1-3-1 zone defense and man-to-man, but could not find much luck at stopping the Golden Gophers. Minnesota was able to move the ball around the 1-3-1 and hit open 3s while they were able to attack the small NU lineup in man-to-man situations.
NU was able to force 14 Minnesota turnovers, but only scored 12 points off of them. The Cats left a lot of points on the table with missed layups and poorly executed fast breaks which frustrated Carmody.
“When we went to the 1-3-1 zone we stole the ball about three or four times, sort of had breakaways, and we didn’t capitalize,” Carmody said. “We had four steals outright and a blocked shot, a missed dunk, a turnover, you know, bad passes. And we didn’t take advantage (of the turnovers).”
NU’s offense in the meantime was stagnant. The Cats shot just 33 percent from the field in the second half and 17 percent in overtime. Carmody credited the Golden Gophers with being able to shut down the Cats’ offense in the last 25 minutes and force NU to beat them one-on-one. Most of Minnesota’s adjustments were geared towards trying to stop Shurna, who scored 12 points in the first half all on 3-pointers.”
“They were just carving us up and lighting us up from outside (in the first half),” Minnesota coach Tubby Smith said. “So we went away from the zone in the second half and primarily played nothing but man to man. We wanted to run (Shurna) off the 3-point line as much as we could, and we did a better job of that in the second half.”
However, there was a bright spot in the Cats’ offense. JerShon Cobb scored a career-high 24 points in the loss while shooting 8-of-12 from the field including nailing all three of his shots from behind the arc. After battling injuries the entire season, the sophomore guard has shown signs of regaining his shooting form after back-to-back double-digit performances.
What the future holds for NU is out of its hands. Carmody did not give a long address to the team after the game and he does not know what he will tell him. He just knows one thing, he’s got awhile to think about it.
“I got a long bus ride home to figure that out,” Carmody said. “I told our guys before the game that if we win tonight, it doesn’t mean you’re in; if you lose tonight, doesn’t mean you’re out.”
