Men’s Basketball

Alex Olah received the ball in the paint before dribbling right and dishing it to an open man on the outside. The senior center set off a rapid-fire three-pass chain, resulting in a wide-open three to put Northwestern up 6 midway through the first half.

Olah did not fill up the stat sheet, recording only 9 points and two rebounds. But this play was illustrative of his big-time performance on both ends of the floor, fueling the Wildcats (8-1) to their most dominant win of the season against an overmatched Chicago State (3-8).

When it was reported that back-up center Joey van Zegeren would be out for a few weeks with a foot injury, it meant that the Cats would need to rely on Olah for almost all meaningful minutes at the center position.

The seven-foot big-man from Romania delivered Sunday for NU, playing 19 of 20 possible minutes in the first half and sparking the Cats’ inside-out gameplan on offense as well as dominating the defensive end.

NU struggled offensively at the beginning of its first game coming off Finals Week. The Cats were forced into numerous contested threes and started down 5-0 after 3:49 of play. However, the team found its winning formula in getting the ball into Olah and letting him post up over players who were at least four inches shorter than him.

In other words, Olah forced the defense to collapse before he dished the ball to the open three point shooters, who would hit 15 threes on the night.

“I thought we settled for some quick threes without getting into the heart of the defense by hitting Alex,” said coach Chris Collins.

Senior guard Tre Demps benefitted most from Olah’s impact Sunday, making a career-high five threes.

“I think everybody was hitting today — it was a good team win,” Demps said.

Defensively, Olah’s height advantage was on display as he blocked three shots, but even more importantly he kept the Cougars on the perimeter all night. NU only allowed Chicago State to shoot a measly 1-of-19 from three and allowed a season-low 35 points. The total was the fewest points allowed by the Cats since giving up 35 to Western Michigan two years ago.

Olah’s performance on Sunday followed up on a dominant effort in NU’s previous game against SIU-Edwardsville, when the big man scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

“I think Alex is starting to come on which is a good thing,” Collins said.

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