Northwestern returned to its defensive identity Tuesday in a 51-47 win at Rutgers to begin Big Ten play.

NU (10-4, 1-0 Big Ten) faced a 10:36 field-goal drought late in the second half but locked down on Rutgers (8-6, 0-1) to hold on for the close victory.

“When your M.O. is your defense, and I think that’s kind of what we’re becoming, (a drought) doesn’t let you lose your mojo,” junior guard Tre Demps said. “I didn’t even know we didn’t have a field goal for 11 minutes. I don’t think anybody did.”

NU held Rutgers to 0.76 points per possession while scoring just 0.83 itself.

“Welcome to Big Ten basketball,” coach Chris Collins said. “The games are grinders. At the end of the day, they don’t ask you for style points.”

What offense the Wildcats did have came primarily from the backcourt. Demps finished with 16 points, but the Cats could have won more comfortably had he made late free throws — Demps missed the front ends of two one-and-ones in the final three minutes.

Sophomore forward Sanjay Lumpkin did the same with less than a minute remaining, allowing the Scarlet Knights to close NU’s once 9-point lead to one possession.

Freshman guard Bryant McIntosh sealed the Cats’ win with 5-of-6 free throw shooting in the final 30 seconds.

“It’s something I’ve done countless times, getting the ball late in a game and knocking free throws down,” McIntosh said. “That’s something I’m comfortable doing.”

McIntosh finished with 17 points and four assists.

Altogether, the Cats’ backcourt combined for 39 points as senior JerShon Cobb recorded 6 points off the bench. Freshman wing Scottie Lindsey added 5 points.

“Our game plan was to take away the paint, which we did,” said Rutgers coach Eddie Jordan — whose strategy limited the Cats to just 12 points inside. “But we didn’t get out enough on their shooters.”

Cobb, who missed the previous five games due to a foot injury, gave his best performance since he scored 16 points at Brown on Nov. 17.

“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to play him 23 minutes. I was hoping 10 or 12,” Collins said, adding Cobb is still not 100 percent. “It’s just a day by day thing, really. He’s going to battle injuries the whole year. It’s his senior year. He wants to be out there with the guys.”

Rutgers forward Kadeem Jack, the team’s second-leading scorer, did not start after missing the team’s breakfast, Jordan said. The big man never found a rhythm after entering at the 9:13 mark of the first half, scoring just 2 points and shooting 0-of-8 from the field.

Guard Myles Mack led Rutgers with 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting. No other Scarlet Knights player reached double figures.

“We just kept getting stops,” Collins said. “To me, that’s what I was most proud of. You have a tendency, especially when you have such a young team, you start to question yourself a little bit. I thought our guys stayed very strong mentally.”

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