One of Cambridge Dictionary’s definitions of a masterclass is “a class taught by someone who has an expert knowledge or skill in a particular area.”

On Thursday, senior guard Boo Buie erased the longtime interpretation, changing the term masterclass to mean as little as two words: Boo Buie. After his season high 35-point performance against Illinois (19-9, 10-7 Big Ten), it’s arguably guaranteed Buie will light up a court with an offensive masterclass everytime. 

However, sometimes it takes more than an expert’s help and career-high performance to solve a problem, which was Northwestern’s (20-8, 11-6 Big Ten) case in its second half breakdown loss to the Illini, losing 66-62. 

“Second half, I thought we got a little bit stagnant,” coach Chris Collins said. “Just like the tale of two halves, obviously, and they just made one more play there at the end to beat us.”

If the contest’s final score was known at halftime, most wouldn’t have believed it. 

The Wildcats’ — or at least Buie’s — inner offensive flame snuffed Illinois’ orange wick early on, lighting purple up from all areas on the court. Following senior forward Robbie Beran’s make and miss threes to start the contest, Buie knocked down a pull-up three with ease and finished in the lane the next time down. 

By the first media timeout, NU’s hot start led to a seven-point lead, and it wasn’t done just yet. Redshirt senior guard Chase Audige and Buie outshined the Illini’s 8-0 splurge out of the timeout, finding the bottom of the basket on three straight possessions. Six of those points came from Buie’s flick of the wrist from deep, a total of 14 points after the second three.

Even though both teams entered a deep and difficult offensive fog in the latter minutes of the half, struggling to score for multiple minutes, the only person to emerge from the heavy mist was Buie. He went on 8-0 run to end half, leading to NU’s comfortable 18-point lead entering the break — 22 by the captain.

“The game was lost in the first four minutes of the second half,” Collins said. “I told our guys at halftime, our energy had to be even better to start the second half.”

And Collins was right. Illinois was on a roll during this time span, cutting the Cats’ lead back down to eight before a timeout was called. State Farm Center erupted: Its home team was putting together the best Two-Face performance since the supervillain in Batman.

The Illini weren’t done just yet, cutting NU’s lead down to four points. And yet, the Cats proved to withstand an Illinois body shot like they’ve done at multiple points in the season, pushing their lead back up to 16 after junior guard Ty Berry’s contact layup over Matthew Mayer.

After that bucket, however, with a little more than 11 minutes remaining, it was Berry’s last field goal of the game and the second to last bucket of the game from the starting guard trio.

“(Illinois) just basically scrapped it, opened the floor and just started driving the ball,” Collins said. “They did a really good job in the second half not really over helping on shooters, and you know, making us drive the ball.”

As every minute passed, the Illini’s offense and defense only got stronger. Meanwhile, NU couldn’t stop Illinois’ offensive mojo like it did in the first half, allowing its in-state rival’s driving and three-point ability to only go up. Much of this was due to the Illini’s decision of running a smaller lineup for the majority of the second half. 

This resulted in their starting big man Dain Dainja seeing the floor for only two minutes, and Cats’ junior center Matthew Nicholson and graduate student forward Tydus Verhoeven seeing their roles change — a mismatch in a negative way. Even with a smaller lineup, Illinois’ length wasn’t a problem, allowing its drives to the basket to still be a point of emphasis. Verhoeven fouled out with nearly two and a half minutes remaining.

The Illini’s ability to spread the floor and defend, especially against Buie, became even more smooth. In the second half, Illinois shot 14-17 from the charity stripe, in comparison to NU’s 6-9, one being a crucial miss in the final minute. On top of that, it began to knock the deep shots, hitting seven of 13 threes while smothering the Cats on the defensive end, who shot 1-5. 

Buie pointed to three reasons for this demise: energy, effort and talk.

“Those are the three main things that we talked about before the game,” Buie said. “We came out really strong with those three things, and then that first four minutes in the second half, we didn’t come out with any of those.”  

With Buie’s out-of-mind bucket getting for the majority of the contest, not much help should be needed to secure the victory. Versus No. 1 Purdue, Audige’s late surge was enough to carry NU to victory, complementing Buie’s 26. This was the same against No. 14 Indiana a few days later, this time with Audige’s 14 and Beran’s 12 to go along with Buie’s 21. 

Versus Illinois, however, Buie’s supporting cast wasn’t enough, as sophomore guard Brooks Barnhizer was the only other Cats’ player in double digits — proving every team is human. And the Illini’s production wasn’t much better, as Terrence Shannon Jr.’s 26 points and Matthew Mayer’s 14 points were the two players for Illinois in double figures. 

But looking at the final score, it was clear the Illini’s second half electricity outweighed NU’s first half juice. With no one to step up when Illinois’ defense focused most of its attention on Buie, it was exposed. 

Although the Cats ran into another solid team on their Big Ten schedule, teams of this caliber or better will be the ones they face deep into the postseason. The loss isn’t one to worry much about, but it did expose some of NU’s weaknesses. 

“(Buie) had 13 in the second half, but we couldn’t really get anybody else going which made it hard for us,” Collins said. 

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @LPIII_TRES

Related Stories:

— Rapid Recap: Illinois 66, No. 21 Northwestern 62

— Men’s Basketball: What To Watch For: Northwestern hopes to keep streak alive Thursday at in-state rival Illinois

— Men’s Basketball: Northwestern now No. 21 in AP Top 25 poll