As both starting fives readied for tip-off, Illinois dominated the eye test. The Fighting Illini won the height matchup at every position except center, where Northwestern junior center Matthew Nicholson stood the tallest on the court, per usual, at 7’0.

This proved to be a problem for the Wildcats (11-3, 2-1 Big Ten) offensively in the first half, struggling to find the basket inside the three-point arc, shooting 30 percent from the field. On the other hand, Illinois (9-5, 0-3 Big Ten) used this to its advantage, finding the bottom of the basket at a much higher rate, 46 percent.

Even with these discrepancies, NU thrived off its strengths on defense — rotational help, flexibility and adaptation.

“Just creating steals or deflections or just havoc in any way is really big for us,” redshirt senior Chase Audige said.“The things we’re doing on defense this year and just the buy-in of all the guys is super duper important.” 

This was huge for the Cats in their three point defense. Although NU allowed a select few wide open threes, most were contested because of the Cats’ quick closeout corner and wing presence to contest Illinois’ shots. 

Not to mention, outside of Nicholson, the Cats’ starting lineup was able to guard one through four on the perimeter no matter the height. In result, Illinois went 3-14 from deep, while NU went into halftime with a six-point lead. 

Even when sophomore guards Julian Roper II and Brooks Barnhizer entered the game, this claim stayed true. And when graduate forward Tydus Verhoeven replaced Nicholson, the Cats took it to a different level, where nearly every player could guard every position on the perimeter. 

On top of this skill the Cats have utilized all season, as the game progressed, their ability to intercept the passing lanes grew stronger and stronger. It started with Audige’s steal off Illinois’ Coleman Hawkins’ pass, resulting in a flagrant one foul called on Illinois’ Terrence Shannon Jr. 

From there, Audige knocked down both free throws and a left corner midrange off the inbounds, and a two-handed and-one slam by senior forward Robbie Beran. The Cats finished with 11 steals to the Fighting Illini’s two.

“This has been probably our best defense in terms of forcing turnovers,” coach Chris Collins said. “Fortunately, we got to the line tonight, we were opportunistic with making enough shots, but our defense has to show up every night.”

Even with this effort on the defensive end, the only aspect of the offense that produced was from the charity stripe. Illinois starter Sencire Harris picked up two quick fouls in the game’s first 30 seconds, which summed up his team, collecting 12 total in the first half. The Cats in turn secured eight points from the line. 

However, it’s simple to understand how this can be problematic, though, if NU’s main source of bucket income is free throws throughout a 40-minute contest, while Illinois just needed to find its groove and go on a run, which it did. The Fighting Illini’s offense was on fire out the gate, featuring a three by both Shannon Jr. and Matthew Mayer, mixed in with a turnaround J by Mayer, resulting in four point lead.

Yet, the Cats were finally able to get going on offense, derived off of back-to-back-to-back threes by the trio of Audige, Barnhizer and junior guard Ty Berry. Not only that, but Berry’s three came off a forced turnover by Nicholson — as they say, “good defense leads to great offense.” This led to a 22-2 run.

“They were starting to really attack us in the open floor,” coach Collins said. “Obviously, the cramping issues from both guards and fortunately some of those other guys really stepped up, made some baskets, we got the lead.” 

Outside of Rutgers, NU stunts the second toughest scoring defense in the conference, allowing 57 points per game, which showed out against the Big Ten fourth highest scoring offense in Illinois. And with offense finally putting the pieces together in the second half, the Cats were able to break the game open, and the Fighting Illini couldn’t keep up.

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