Northwestern air-balled four shots during the first half of its season opener Saturday.
The aftermath of a sloppy exhibition game seemed to linger at Welsh-Ryan Arena, but the Wildcats (1-0) ultimately prevailed 72-55 over the Eastern Illinois Panthers (0-1).
New coach Chris Collins began his career with a 57-46 exhibition win over Lewis on Wednesday, but the result was anything but pretty: NU hit only 40 percent of its shots from the floor. That same sluggish play continued to haunt the Cats in the first half against Eastern Illinois.
Sophomore center Alex Olah committed several costly errors early, whiffing on two mid-range jumpers and turning the ball over at the top of the key to hand the Panthers an easy fast break.
Drew Crawford was there to pick up the slack for his teammates. In the first half, the redshirt senior forward led all players with 15 points, was a stellar 3-for-4 from long range, and added seven rebounds to go along with his offense. The Cats’ star player finished with 25 points and 11 rebounds.
“My teammates did a good job of finding me,” Crawford said. “We’re a confident team and a confident offense every night.”
Despite leading by as many as 18 points during the opening half, NU went into halftime ahead by a slim margin of only 4.
“After we got out to that lead, they got us on our heels with their pressure,” Collins said. “At halftime we talked about, if they’re going to pressure us like that, we need to rip through them and we need to attack.”
NU came out of the locker room with much greater intensity to start the second half. With 18:52 to play, JerShon Cobb made a quick jab to knock the ball away from the Eastern Illinois ball handler. The junior guard showed great hustle in diving for the loose ball and found junior guard Dave Sobolewski streaking down the court for an easy basket.
Cobb, expected to be a key contributor this season, put up only 3 points in the first half but showed other flashes of brilliance in the second. With less than nine minutes to play, he cut into the lane with a slick spin move and then dished the ball to freshman forward Sanjay Lumpkin,who hit an open 3-pointer from the corner to put the Cats up by 15. Cobb finished the night with 9 points and eight assists and led the team with 36 minutes played.
Several NU players got into foul trouble late in the game, but the team continued to expand its lead. Crawford picked up his fourth foul with 7:15 remaining, and Olah tallied his fourth whistle with 5:56 to play, resulting in both players heading to the bench. Strong play from Lumpkin, who totaled 9 points off of three 3-pointers, allowed the Cats to press their advantage, and Crawford also returned late to ice the game for NU.
“JerShon did a great job driving and kicking,” Lumpkin said. “A lot of guys got good looks, and I was a beneficiary of that.”
Improved shooting was key down the stretch. The Cats were a combined 10-for-25 from the floor in the first half, but they improved to 10-for-18 in the second and added 15 points from the free throw line.
Having just won his first career game as a head coach, Collins was glowing at the post-game news conference.
“It was great, it was exciting,” Collins said. “To be at a place like this, for Morton Schapiro to be here, for Jim Phillips to be here, my family is here. It was a special night.”
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the number of points NU led by in the first half. The Daily regrets the error.
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