Northwestern made a run at No. 2 Indiana, but it was too little too late.
After trailing by as many as 16 in the second half, the Wildcats (11-8, 2-4 Big Ten) made a furious rally in the final 10 minutes of the second half to get within five. However, the Hoosiers (16-2, 4-1) made crucial buckets down the stretch to hold off the Cats 67-59 Sunday afternoon.
“You have to play very well against a team of this caliber,” coach Bill Carmody said. “We’re playing pretty solid defensively and offensively, we just have to do a little bit better job in the first half.”
Despite the loss, the second half belonged to the Cats. NU was able to stick with Indiana point-for-point in the early parts of the half and made small runs to cut into the deficit. The offense found a rhythm in the second stanza which led to NU shooting 50 percent from both the field and behind the arc. The offense revolved around the two seniors, guard Reggie Hearn and forward Jared Swopshire, who combined for 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting in the second half.
The final 20 minutes helped erase the memory of another slow start for NU. The Cats shot a pedestrian 30.4 percent from the field in the first half and hit just 1-of-9 3-point attempts. NU led for the only time just two minutes into the contest when they held a 4-3 lead, but Indiana proceeded to go on a 23-5 run to take a commanding 17-point lead. During that stretch the Cats offense looked rushed and the team was not able to create many good looks.
Sophomore guard Dave Sobolewski said the difference between the two halves on offense was aggression. He said as NU became more aggressive in the second half, shots started to open up for the other players.
“Early on in the second half we got some drives and that really opened up the entire offense,” Sobolewski said.
Indiana led by 14 at halftime thanks to its interior play. The Hoosiers scored 16 of their 31 points in the paint and had eight second-chance points off seven offensive rebounds. Cody Zeller and Christian Watford teamed up to score 18 points and grab 12 rebounds in the first period, both of which were more than NU’s entire team had in the half. The major reason for the discrepancy was freshmen centers Alex Olah and Mike Turner combining for one rebound the entire contest which came with about 11 minutes remaining in the first half and led to NU’s only second-chance points in the first half.
“I told our team at halftime that they were just punishing us on the backboards,” Carmody said. “Our centers are one rebound between them, that’s scary. They played 35 minutes and to get one rebound is just not acceptable.”
After halftime, NU looked like a different team on the glass. The Cats lost the rebounding battle 14-13 in the second half, but managed to grab six offensive rebounds while limiting Indiana to just four. In fact, NU outscored Indiana 14-10 in the paint in the second half, thanks in large part to the increase in drives to the basket. Hearn by himself earned several trips to the foul line after getting tough layups to fall amidst the contact.
Hearn showcased his veteran leadership ability with 22 points against the Hoosiers. He hit 8-of-9 free throws and shot 70 percent from inside the arc. Carmody said the performance was to be expected from a senior and the veterans are doing a better job at being aggressive within the offense.
The veterans will have a lot of internal and external pressure placed upon them as the conference season hits its stride. On Sunday, Hearn and Sobolewski played the entire 40 minutes, which Hearn said the veterans need to expect. But, Hearn also said there is a lot of pressure on the three seniors to get to the NCAA Tournament.
“This is me, Swop and (Alex Marcotullio’s) last chance to get to the Tournament,” Hearn said. “We think we can do and we think we have the guys to do it so you’re going to see us giving 100 percent every night.”
