It’s rare to have a head coach call a game early in conference play a “must-win,” but Chris Collins played that card on Jan. 6. And then his team delivered its most exciting one of the season.

The offense wasn’t flowing much better than it had in Northwestern’s two close Big Ten losses, and the top of the conference is still crowded and miles away, but it was easy to notice a team saving its season when junior forward A.J. Turner nailed a three with 11 seconds left from the top of the key.

After calling his own number on a set play, Turner ran a pick-and-roll with senior center Dererk Pardon and stepped-back beyond the 3-point arc and missed. Senior forward Vic Law lunged to keep the ball alive and Law secured just the team’s fourth offensive rebound of the game before dishing it back out to Turner in almost the same spot.

He nailed the second chance, and the Wildcats (10-5, 1-3 Big Ten) escaped with a 68-66 win over Illinois (4-11, 0-4).

“This was a game we knew we had to win, there was no sugarcoating it,” Collins said. “Playing your arch-rival at home, you got to win, and if you’re scared about that then we’re not going to win anyway.”

NU lost by two points in consecutive Big Ten games in December to No. 21 Indiana and No. 2 Michigan after failing to convert late. Had Turner missed a second time, the Cats would have had a last-place record four games into the 20-game conference schedule.

Collins said he put a lot of pressure on the team to win this game and – as a result – on Turner to be the first player this season to convert in crunch time of a close game.

As Law struggled from the field against a high-pressure defense from the Fighting Illini that denied him the ball, Turner made three baskets in the last four minutes and finished with an efficient 12 points on six shots with four assists as well.

It was a departure from how most of the year has been going for the junior forward, whose shooting ability was questioned by Illinois coach Brad Underwood following the game. According to Collins, Turner’s 29.2 percentage from deep has been the source of a constant dialogue with the coaching staff during the season concerning remaining aggressive through his up-and-down shooting.

“You don’t accomplish anything good if you’re on your heels,” Collins said. “You just don’t. You’ve got to put yourself out there, and sometimes you put yourself out there and it doesn’t work. But you’re never going to know what you can do unless you go for it.”

“And that’s always been my message with all of these guys. And to see (Turner), that’s been a little bit of a hurdle for him. He’s a talented kid, and we really believe in him. In the second half, we don’t win without those plays.”

In the second half, Turner, Law and graduate guard Ryan Taylor combined for 32 of the team’s 43 points. They led the team out of a stretch where the team scored 2 points in eight minutes spanning the end of the first half and the beginning of the second. Illinois guard Ayo Dosunmu led the Fighting Illini with a team-high 18 points, but only one Illinois player shot better than 50 percent from the field and the team was 0-for-11 from deep over the course of the game.

The Cats held Illinois guard Trent Frazier to a contested step-back 30-footer at the buzzer to seal the win and seperate themselves from the bottom of the Big Ten. Collins said the win gives NU a reason to believe the team can close out games in this conference heading into two more against ranked opponents – No. 25 Iowa and again, the Wolverines.

“We had three really difficult losses against three of the best, not only in the conference but in the country,” Collins said. “We had to come home and we had to find a way to win, and we did, so I’m really proud of my team.”

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Twitter: @2021_charlie