CHICAGO — Indiana does two things well: drain 3-pointers at a high clip and crash the offensive glass.

Northwestern’s active defense neutralized the perimeter, but its 2-3 zone left the boards vulnerable, even to an undersized Hoosiers squad.

Indiana took full advantage, scoring 20 second-chance points on 20 offensive rebounds, and advancing to the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals with a 71-56 victory. 

“Some of the things we really needed to get corrected were second-chance points and doing a much better job on the defensive glass,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. “In turn we did an even better job on the offensive glass.”

Indiana’s high-powered offense, which entered the game with the nation’s 10th best adjusted efficiency and 17th best effective field-goal percentage on Kenpom.com, shot just 27-of-65 from the field.

Although the Hoosiers missed some open looks, a large part of their shooting struggles were due to the Cats’ defensive game plan.

“I actually thought we did a pretty good job in terms of how we played on the initial defense,” coach Chris Collins said.

But good defense only matters if a team finishes the possession with a defensive rebound. More often than not, NU did not achieve that.

“The proof is in the pudding — 20 offensive rebounds,” Collins said.

Junior center Alex Olah, the tallest player on the floor at 7 feet, tried to hold his own on the glass, grabbing a team-high seven rebounds. But he said the Hoosiers’ physicality and tenacity wore him and the team down.

“They just crashed the boards so hard,” Olah said. “It was (difficult) for us to keep up with their athleticism.”

Offensively, NU kept pace with Indiana in terms of shooting.

The Cats had an effective field goal percentage of 48.9 percent compared to the Hoosiers’ 50 percent. They also had greater success at the foul line.

In the end, the 20 offensive rebounds were the killer.

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Twitter: @Jesse_Kramer