Men’s Basketball

More than a century after men’s basketball was first introduced at Northwestern, the Wildcats finally have a 20-win regular season under their belt.

Senior center Alex Olah and guard Tre Demps closed out their time in Welsh-Ryan Arena with a rousing 65-54 win over Nebraska (14-17, 6-12 Big Ten), sending NU (20-11, 8-10) into the Big Ten Tournament with momentum and earning the most regular-season victories in program history.

Olah and Demps, who were both honored with their families prior to tip-off as part of Senior Day festivities, combined for 36 points and 11 rebounds. The two looked poised and collected despite the significance of the day and helped the Cats hold off a strong second-half push by the Cornhuskers.

“I put the game before all the emotions,” Olah said. “I knew we were going to have to win this game to make history.”

NU concludes the regular season on a three-game winning streak, their longest of the conference season, and enter the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 9 seed.

They’ll face No. 8 seed Michigan, the most recent team to beat the Cats, in the second round of the Big Tens in Indianapolis on Thursday.

“You want to leave a momentum for a program,” Demps said. “In my opinion, there’s probably only room for one team between Penn State, Illinois, Nebraska and us to emerge and take that next step as a program. To win those last three games put us in a great position for us to take that big step (forward) for the future.”

Sophomore guard Scottie Lindsey set a career high in Sunday’s game with eight rebounds, helping the Cats dominate Nebraska 40-26 on the boards. Sophomore guard Bryant McIntosh shot inefficiently, making only 3-of-10 attempts, but recorded seven assists to lead the team.

NU didn’t score its first points until three minutes into the game but then quickly found its stride, exploding on a 28-6 run that culminated with an 87-second possession leading to a 3-point play from McIntosh. The Cats led 37-22 at halftime.

Nebraska was held to long-range jumpers and contested finishes at the rim throughout the first half and shot just 33.3 percent from the field as NU’s defense pressed the 3-point line and Olah’s 7-foot frame clogged up the paint. The Cornhuskers found more space from behind the arc as the game progressed but their two leading scorers this season, Shavon Shields and Andrew White III, struggled all game long while shooting 7-for-24 combined from the field.

Coach Chris Collins said that his gameplan was centered on especially on stopping Shields, who had scored 25 and 32 points in his last two outings but was held to just 11 on Sunday.

After trailing by as many as 20 points in the first half, Nebraska managed to cut the deficit down as low as 6 in the final five minutes, adding an air of nervousness about the home crowd of 7,702. A midrange jumper by Olah with exactly three minutes left, however, broke the tide and allowed the Cats to close out the game.

After blowing several second-half leads earlier this season, NU finishes the regular season season having held off opponents’ surges in each of its final two games — an encouraging sign entering postseason play, Collins said.

“Ohio State and Michigan were the ones that really stung us the most, because we felt like we outplayed those two teams and we didn’t finish the deal,” Collins said. “To be able to have these last two games where we did finish the deal, hopefully that’s something we’ll carry with us as we move forward.”

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