Men’s Basketball

It was a banner day for the back of the rim.

Northwestern (12-12, 3-10 Big Ten) finished the game with 56 points and Rutgers (12-11, 5-9) had 59, but the iron outscored everybody.

In a game played between two teams in the bottom quarter of the Big Ten standings, it was the rim’s stellar performance that proved to be the difference maker. Senior forward Vic Law led everyone with 10 misses and 17 points. Rutgers was led offensively by Montez Mathis, who missed 7 shots and finished with 12 points.

Compare that with the rim, which succeeded 69 out of 113 times by preventing the ball from going in the basket.

1. Both offenses struggle from the field. In a matchup between the Wildcats and Scarlet Knights last month, Rutgers’ leading scorer, Eugene Omoruyi missed the game with an injury. But the return of an all Big Ten caliber player didn’t exactly lead to higher quality of play for either team.

In the last minute of the game, following consecutive made threes by Law to cut NU’s deficit to one point, Law’s potential game-winning layup hit front rim. He drove past the Rutgers defense to get an open look, but after the Scarlet Knight corralled the rebound, they made both free throws to extend their lead to three.

Law’s final heave at the buzzer missed the rim altogether.

2. Another unattractive end to a half. With six seconds to go in the half and the score tied at 22, Collins called a timeout to draw up a play for NU’s final possession before the break. After 60 seconds of gameplanning, A.J. Turner’s baseline pass was tipped out of bounds. Collins used another timeout.

After 60 more seconds, Turner was nearly called for a 5 second violation before the Rutgers defender crossed the sideline, a penalty that gave the Cats another chance. On the third try, Turner threw the ball to a double teamed Anthony Gaines in the corner. Gaines took the ball and fumbled it into the backcourt. After a Rutgers timeout, the half mercifully ended with the score tied at 22.

In the first half, Ryan Taylor led all scoring with 7 points. The two teams combined to shoot 35 percent from the field. The Scarlet Knights were scoreless in the final 3:49 of the first half and missed a contested three-point shot as the clock expired.

3. More changes from Collins. If it wasn’t clear already, the coach isn’t afraid to drastically shake up his rotation to juice the offense. Junior center Barret Benson started his second consecutive game alongside senior center Dererk Pardon. Also, Ryan Greer and Miller Kopp were virtually taken out of the rotation and played single digit minutes.

On the other hand, Pardon and Gaines were called on to play nearly the entire game, and Law would have done the same if he hadn’t been battling foul trouble. In crunch time, Collins played a sparsely used group featuring Gaines, Turner, Law, Falzon and Pardon that hadn’t seen much time on the floor together Wednesday until the final few minutes.

It’s uncertain what changes Collins has left to make from here, and the Cats extended their losing streak to five games heading into a road matchup against Nebraska on Saturday.

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Twitter: @2021_charlie