Three days removed from its first loss of the year, Northwestern men’s basketball took the court against UIC to try to get back in the win column.
It did. The Wildcats (2-1, 0-0 Big Ten) took down the Flames (2-1, 0-0 MVC) 83-74, using a tenacious defensive presence and strong second half to retain a winning record.
Junior forward Nick Martinelli, as usual, led NU in scoring with 27 points on 10-of-14 shooting. Graduate student guard Jalen Leach also pitched in 16 points.
The ’Cats started off with a bang, with graduate student guard Ty Berry feeding graduate student center Matthew Nicholson for an alley-oop dunk. On the ensuing possession, NU did it again, this time graduate student guard Jalen Leach flipping Nicholson the lob and jumping out to a 4-0 lead.
The Flames answered, storming back to a 5-4 lead before Leach made a contested layup to take it back. A free throw by UIC knotted up the game at 6-6, a score which remained for nearly four minutes before the Flames knocked down a pair of threes, taking a 12-6 lead.
Martinelli snapped NU’s five-and-a-half-minute scoring drought ahead of the under-12 timeout, cutting the UIC lead to 12-8.
Berry nailed a triple out of the timeout to cut the deficit to just one point before a pair of free throws from freshman guard Angelo Ciaravino gave the ’Cats a 15-14 lead. Berry finished with 13 points and 6 rebounds Tuesday, making 3-of-5 three-pointers.
NU’s defense began to ratchet up its intensity, forcing five UIC turnovers in the game’s first twelve minutes, but the offense could not get going. Martinelli missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Nicholson hit the rim on an alley-oop. Berry air-balled a three-pointer.
Martinelli finally got going, scoring a pair of buckets as the ’Cats took a 24-23 lead. But NU went cold again, failing to log a made field goal for more than five minutes. Ciaravino finally scored a layup with 14 seconds left to stop the drought.
Yet the ’Cats defense stood firm, holding UIC to just 29 points in the half as NU took a slim 31-29 lead into halftime.
Martinelli scored his 11th point shortly into the first half before Leach scored four in quick succession, burying a trey before earning a trip to the line and making a free throw.
A stout defensive presence spurred NU to a 39-33 lead by the under-16 timeout of the second half. Martinelli continued to pour in buckets, logging 18 in the second half, while Leach found success as a secondary option.
Though UIC kept the matchup close, the ’Cats never relinquished their lead, finally breaking the game open with a 10-point lead. Martinelli found Berry wide-open in the corner and Berry snared the triple.
The Flames made a late push, cutting the deficit to 74-70 with 1:35 remaining, before Martinelli converted a tough and-one bucket to re-extend the lead to 77-70, effectively burying the UIC comeback.
Here are three takeaways from Tuesday’s tilt:
1. Offense struggles in first half, rebounds in second
Against Dayton on Saturday, Martinelli shot 12-for-16 from the field. NU shot 25-of-56, meaning its players not wearing No. 2 combined for a dismal 13-for-40, or 32.5%, from the field.
Tuesday wasn’t much better for NU. In the first half, the ’Cats shot 11-for-30, only making 2-of-8 from beyond the arc.
Again, it was Martinelli contributing the bulk of the shots, making 4-of-6. The rest of the team shot 29.2% from the field in the first half.
The second half was the exact opposite. The ’Cats shot 16-for-24 in the final 20 minutes, outscoring the Flames by seven points in that stretch.
2. Defense wins championships?
NU’s defense was the sole reason it remained in the game through the first 20 minutes Tuesday.
UIC only scored 29 points in the first half, committing 10 turnovers in the first half alone.
NU’s defense forced four more turnovers in the second half’s first four minutes, giving the offense the ability to break the game open. The ’Cats forced 20 turnovers by the end of the game.
NU coach Chris Collins often lauds assistant coach Chris Lowery for creating a “gritty” defensive scheme, one that has defined NU as a program. Against UIC Tuesday, that statement rang true.
3. Leach turns in strong second-half performance
After racking up three first-half fouls and only playing eight minutes in the first half, Leach played all but one minute in the second half. He made every second count.
In 26 minutes Tuesday, Leach poured in 16 points on 5-for-8 shooting. The transfer from Fairfield, who shot 1-for-5 against Dayton and 5-for-11 against Lehigh, finally had a strong shooting performance as a ’Cat.
Leach excelled as a secondary scoring option, creating on-the-ball and finding other options off-the-ball. He made tight-window passes, putting points on the board and demonstrating why Collins recruited him to NU.
In senior guard Brooks Barnhizer’s stead, Leach has produced a perfectly capable performance in the backcourt.
Email: [email protected]
Related Stories:
— Men’s Basketball: ’Cats fall 66-71 after Flyers take off in second half
