Men’s Basketball

When senior guard Bryant McIntosh fell to the ground clutching his left knee with 17 minutes left and Northwestern trailing Brown, the Wildcats’ prospects looked bleak.

However, the rest of the team rallied in his absence and held off a feisty Bears squad in a 95-73 victory in its final nonconference contest.

McIntosh was injured when Brown guard Zach Hunsaker fell sideways into his left knee, causing McIntosh to collapse and need help limping to the locker room. At the time of his departure, McIntosh, who did not return, led the team with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting and had three assists.

“(Losing McIntosh) was a big hit for our team,” junior center Dererk Pardon said. “We were concerned, but we knew we had to finish the game out, and that’s what he would have wanted us to do.”

From that point forward, NU (10-5, 1-1 Big Ten) outscored the Bears (6-6) 49-24 thanks to a strong team effort on both ends of the court.

Five different players had at least 5 points for the Cats in the second half. Brown, on the other hand, shot only 36 percent from the field in the latter frame.

“Brown was playing really well, so we wanted to try to pick up our effort and energy and coming out of the (injury) timeout. I think we did a good job of that,” junior guard Jordan Ash said.

The game was junior forward Vic Law’s first after he missed the last two games with a concussion. He looked rusty in his return and shot just 2-of-9 from the field while picking up four fouls in his first nine minutes of action.

Law’s foul trouble led to more more minutes for Anthony Gaines. The freshman guard came into the game averaging 3.4 points per game, but he scored 11 on the day.

Leading the charge for NU throughout the game was Pardon. The big man scored 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting, grabbed eight rebounds and even dished out three assists.

Pardon was able to take advantage of the Bears’ lack of size in the paint to score on post-ups and four offensive rebounds. He also played a key role defensively, contesting many of Brown’s cuts and drives to the paint and recording four blocks.

The Bears led by as many as 7 in the second half, but struggled to score down the stretch. Brown guard Brandon Anderson came into the game leading the country in free throw attempts per game, taking over nine per contest. Against NU, Anderson scored a career-high 26 points and shot 7-of-9 from the charity stripe but could not propel the Bears to the upset.

With nonconference play complete, the Cats will resume Big Ten action when they host Nebraska on Tuesday with McIntosh’s status uncertain.

“Excited to get back to Big Ten play, obviously,” coach Chris Collins said. “Bryant, we don’t know much … We’ve got to get with the medical staff and figure out the extent (of the injury).”

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