There’s something between Northwestern (21-11, 12-8 Big Ten) and Penn State (21-12, 10-10 Big Ten) playing nail-biting contests that exceed 40 minutes. 

Entering the Big Ten Tournament as a program-best No. 2 seed, Northwestern sought revenge against Penn State. Just nine days ago, the Cats dropped their home-finale on a heartbreaking buzzer-beater in overtime to the Nittany Lions. Now in the United Center, NU could have excelled in the Big Ten Tournament. 

The two squads topped off last week’s down-the-wire contest with a tighter Friday contest. Unfortunately, even a double-bye could not save NU from finishing one-and-done in the tournament, falling 67-65 to Penn State.

Offensive struggles continued to plague the Cats all-game long even with the defense remaining elite. While the squad held an early 4-0 advantage at the first four media timeout from redshirt senior Chase Audige’s pullup jumper and junior center Matthew Nicholson’s dunk, the team failed to generate offensive consistency. Graduate student forward Tydus Verhoeven’s steal was part of four NU forced turnovers in the first seven minutes.

Despite NU being assertive on the defensive end, it failed to take advantage offensively. Halfway through the first half, the squad restricted the Nittany Lions to shoot 2-for-11 from the field and 1-for-5 from deep, the Cats could only muster a one point advantage, at 6-5. 

“We defended them much better tonight than we did last week when we played them,” Collins said. “We gave up 13 threes last week when we played them, and we fouled two three-point shooters.” 

Over the course of the first half, the Cats continued to miss from deep. Snapping an 0-for-8 clip, senior forward Robbie Beran’s pullup three helped the Cats retake the advantage at 16-14 with 5 minutes to play. A 8-0 Penn State run a few minutes later saw NU face its highest deficit of the contest. 

“We left a lot of points on the table in the first half,” Collins said. “We had some shots around the rim. We had some open shots that maybe we could have had a little bit of a lead there.”

At intermission, the squad failed to receive much offensive contributions aside from Buie, with junior guard Ty Berry going scoreless on five attempts and Audige recording a mere two points, both from the floor.

Out of the locker room, the Cats started the second half similarly to how they did in the first half. While the squad continued forcing turnovers, the team could not record any points. Freshman forward Nick Martinelli’s second-chance layup snapped an 0-for-5 scoring slump, recording the squad’s first second-half points four minutes in.

Seeing NU’s starting backcourt’s struggles, Coach Collins removed both Buie and Audige from the lineup, rolling with sophomore guard Brooks Barnhizer as primary ball handler. This new lineup gave the squad the ability to have the ball in someone else’s hands. When the Cats had their highest deficit of the night at nine halfway through the second half, Barnhizer went on a personal 5-0 run, capped by a pullup three. The sophomore guard’s nine points led the team in scoring in the second half. 

“I saw our two leading scorers on the bench, and I knew we needed some offense from somewhere,” Barnhizer said. 

With two minutes left to play, Berry recorded his first points of the contest, rattling in a three. While the Cats held onto a two point advantage with one minute to play, a lack of ball movement in the squad’s final possessions, forced the game to be dead-locked at 56 at the buzzer.

“Penn State did a good job of trying to get the ball out of Chase and I’s hands,” Buie said. “As a team, including Chase and I, we just didn’t make shots overall. We missed a couple shots that we usually make, and if we had made those, we would have gained a little bit of a lead.”

In overtime, the Cats’ inability to record points from the floor made it difficult for them to take the advantage at any moment. Consecutive missed free throws from Nicholson and missed three point attempts by Buie and Audige saw the squad fall short, especially as Penn State’s shooting woes came to life after nailing two threes. 

Looking ahead to next week, when the Cats will participate in an even-bigger stage — the NCAA tournament, Collins stressed the need of performing much better on the offensive end if his squad wants to push towards a deep run.

“We’ve got to be better going into the NCAA Tournament,” Collins said. “31 percent (and) our four main scorers – Boo, Chase, Ty, and Brooks — shooting about 25 percent from the floor is not going to cut it. You’re not going to beat NCAA quality teams if we can’t get our guys going.”

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