As the Northwestern men’s basketball team trotted toward the locker room for halftime during Monday night’s season opener against Lehigh, a corner of the jumbotron displayed 17 points for junior forward Nick Martinelli.
On another section of the jumbotron, the score read just 15 points for the Mountain Hawks (0-1, 0-0 Patriot League).
Martinelli’s 17 first-half points spurred him en route to a team-high 26 points. He added 10 rebounds and two steals as the Wildcats (1-0, 0-0 Big Ten) whomped Lehigh 90-46, starting the season with a dominant stamp on the win column.
Monday’s contest marked the second straight game this season in which Martinelli logged 25 or more points, which he did against Lewis in an exhibition on Oct. 30. The only difference: The contest against Lehigh meant something.
“I definitely think a lot of the growth comes from trust in my teammates,” Martinelli said. “There was a lot of pressure put on us during the summer. We loved it. We embraced it. It was a great opportunity.”
Five NU players logged double-digit scoring as the ’Cats shot a blistering 54.5% from the field in a wire-to-wire victory.
Graduate student center Matthew Nicholson began the scoring with an emphatic slam dunk 50 seconds in, giving the hosts a lead they did not yield for 39 minutes.
Freshman guard K.J. Windham was everywhere on defense in the early stages as NU ran to a 9-0 lead. It took Lehigh more than four minutes to record its first bucket.
“I just really challenged our guys defensively coming into this game,” coach Chris Collins said. “We were all over the place, we were active, but not giving up open drives and open shots.”
The Mountain Hawks committed four turnovers before the first media timeout. Meanwhile, NU continued making buckets.
Redshirt sophomore forward Luke Hunger, en route to a career-high 15-point night, poured in seven ahead of the under-12-minute timeout. By then, NU already led 18-7.
Hunger, who saw an extended role last season following Nicholson’s season-ending injury, embodied the role of a “stretch five” — a player who can go to battle in the post but pull up from beyond the arc — Monday.
“He’s just super confident,” Collins said of Hunger. “So much about basketball is if you play with confidence, so much is going to happen for you. Because if you’re out there, and you’re unsure, you’re not going to play well.”
The NU defensive scheme proved nightmarish for the Mountain Hawks, who shot just 19.2% from the field in the first half and only 32.1% overall.
Collins and assistant coach Chris Lowery have developed a defensive scheme intertwined with the identity of ’Cats basketball. NU plays a gritty, hard-nosed scheme –– one Collins said is crucial to winning games.
“We haven’t changed who we are,” Collins said. “Defense is so much about scheme and so much about wanting to do it, and believing in that scheme. And our guys believe in our defense.”
By the under-8-minute timeout in the first half, the ’Cats led 30-8, going on a 12-1 run in the four-minute stretch. They continued the torrential pace for the final eight minutes of the first half, outscoring the Mountain Hawks 19-7 to head to the half with a 51-15 lead.
With senior guard Brooks Barnhizer unavailable for Monday’s matchup, Collins turned to Windham, who became the first NU freshman to start in a season opener since Casey Simmons in 2021.
Windham, who starred this summer in the ’Cats’ European exhibitions, finished with 10 points, six assists, three rebounds and two steals Monday. The last NU freshman to score 10 or more points in a game? A budding star named Boo Buie.
“K.J. is awesome,” Hunger said. “He came in ready right away to play. He doesn’t look like a freshman on the court. He’s confident, he can shoot the ball … He’s really, really good and we’re going to need him a lot this year.”
Windham inflicted further torment on the Mountain Hawks early on in the second half. He stole the ball from a Lehigh defender, carried the ball up the court in transition and dished to graduate student guard Ty Berry, who buried a three-pointer to make the score 54-15.
NU continued its offensive onslaught throughout the remainder of the second half as Collins rotated his bench. Every player on the ’Cats subbed in except for sophomore guard Jordan Clayton.
Three ’Cats logged their first career points Monday: redshirt freshman forward Blake Barkley, freshman forward Angelo Ciaravino and Windham.
Collins even called a timeout with less than a minute remaining to put fan-favorite redshirt sophomore forward Gus Hurlburt onto the court to raucous applause as NU punctuated its entrance into the win column.
The ’Cats travel to Dayton, Ohio to take on the Flyers next Saturday in what may be the toughest nonconference matchup for NU this season.
“We know what’s ahead of us every game — you can’t get too high, you can’t get too low, Collins said. “We’ve gotta get back to work here. We’ve got a week of preparation to go on the road and play against a really good Dayton team in one of the most hostile environments in the country.”
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