Men’s Basketball

After 10 consecutive conference losses, even coach Chris Collins was injured.

He said he wishes he had a story of getting hurt on the court, punching a whiteboard or striking the floor with such force that he started to bleed. He wishes it happened as he tried to light a fire under a team that lost 10 consecutive games.

A cut between his right-hand ring and middle fingers forced him to wear a bandage Wednesday, but it was because of “stupid stuff at home” that took place when none of his players were watching.

“It’s a better story if I’d hit something,” he said. “I’ll go with that instead.”

Northwestern (13-17, 4-15 Big Ten) never had a rallying moment like that which immediately woke the team up from its extended losing streak, but at least that streak ended with a 68-50 win Wednesday over Ohio State (18-12, 8-11).

“When you don’t win for a while, you do get a little beaten down,” Collins said. “Obviously we’re not where we want to be in terms of wins and losses, but we can’t look back and look at what did or didn’t happen the last month and a half.”

The Wildcats had one of their best defensive performances in conference play, holding the Buckeyes to 50 points on 26.6 percent shooting. Ohio State was missing its leading scorer, center Kaleb Wesson, which paved the way for the team’s poor shooting night as well as a dominant performance from senior center Dererk Pardon, who finished with 20 points.

Without Wesson, who scored 22 points in the other matchup between these two teams, only two Buckeye players cracked double figures and none shot better that 45 percent from the field.

NU totaled 15 assists on the game, many of which went to an open Pardon against an undersized big man in the lane.

“It’s important when we’re playing well that he touches the ball and is really playing effectively,” senior forward Vic Law said. “It’s especially important since Kaleb Wesson wasn’t playing to get the ball to (Pardon) and let him be aggressive.”

Forward Keyshawn Woods led Ohio State with 15 points, but he struggled to gain against a defense that challenged him to take open threes and swarmed him in the lane. The Buckeyes offense especially struggled in the first half, as it took them 12 minutes to reach double digits, and they finished with only 17 points at halftime.

Ohio State crept back in the second half as a result of 18 second half points from bench players C.J. Jackson and Duane Washington, cutting the deficit all the way to five points with 8:54 to play. The Cats have fumbled away several games down the stretch this year, but a 10-0 streak over the next two minutes gave them their first win since Jan. 22.

“When they cut the lead down, there was a lot of whispers about is this like Iowa all over again,” Collins said. “We just got together and said ‘not tonight’… Then we got good possessions either scoring or holding the ball deep into the clock and did a good job getting back and making them either use a lot of time or get stops in the last four minutes.”

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Twitter: @2021_charlie