With just over three minutes remaining in overtime during Northwestern’s Thursday night showdown against Maryland, senior guard Brooks Barnhizer stood in the right-hand corner and launched a contested 3-pointer.
The ball glanced tamely off the rim and into the hands of Maryland guard Selton Miguel, giving the Terrapins (13-5, 3-4 Big Ten) an opportunity to extend their 72-70 advantage.
The Wildcats (11-6, 2-4 Big Ten) looked tired. Having led by nine points with four minutes to play in regulation, NU let its lead slip through a combination of defensive miscommunications, a botched inbound pass and a missed free throw.
As the game teetered on the brink of what would’ve been the ’Cats fourth-straight defeat, thoughts turned to the team’s previous close calls this season: a go-ahead half-court shot waved off at Butler, a buzzer-beater at Iowa and a game-tying bucket denied by a controversial goaltending call at Penn State.
“They lost two games that I think they deserved to win,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said of NU’s losses to Iowa and Penn State after his team’s win at Welsh-Ryan Arena Sunday. “They’d be 3-1 instead of 1-3.”
With the cuts from those losses still fresh, it would have been easy for coach Chris Collins’s group to unravel in yet another tight finish. Instead, a timely Terrapin mistake proved to be the turning point.
At the overtime three-minute mark, Maryland point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie nonchalantly dribbled the ball up the court and lost track of time, committing an inexplicable 10-second violation with his team up 72-70.
That gift was all NU needed to spring back to life. Junior forward Nick Martinelli tied the game with a floater on the next possession, and his buzzer-beating, mid-range jump shot as overtime expired lifted the ’Cats to a vital 76-74 win.
In a season where fine margins have gone against his team at every turn, the relief on Collins’ face after Martinelli’s game-winner was palpable.
“We had three just gut-wrenching, tough losses,” Collins said. “For us to come home and be in that situation again and get the win, it was huge.”
Gillespie’s lapse in concentration wasn’t the only sliding doors moment that proved crucial to Northwestern’s win.
With the game tied at 74-74 and 6.9 seconds on the clock, graduate student guard Ty Berry raced up the floor. As Berry switched the ball onto his left hand, Gillespie swooped in from behind to deflect it into the hands of Terrapin forward Julian Reese — but, as Reese attempted to shield the ball from Berry, it slipped through his fingers, landing out of bounds with 0.7 seconds left.
An inbound pass and a pure stroke from Martinelli later, Welsh-Ryan Arena erupted in celebration of an NU win.
“I’m a big believer in the basketball gods,” Collins said. “I feel like when you do things right and you invest in the game the way you’re supposed to, you deserve some good fortune. And this group has had some bad fortune at the end of games.”
Those strokes of luck would have been insignificant had the ’Cats not competed with the urgency of a team looking to save its season.
Coming off the bench for the first time this season, Berry bounced back from recent struggles to contribute 15 points. After scoring a season-low four points against Michigan State, Barnhizer was back to his stat-sheet-stuffing best — scoring 20 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing out five assists.
With backup center Luke Hunger out with a foot injury, graduate student center Keenan Fitzmorris stepped up, blocking three shots and getting a crucial offensive rebound that led to a Barnhizer three at the 10:56 mark in the second half.
Still, NU has put in similarly monumental efforts on other occasions this season and emerged no stronger in the win column.
“It’s just nice to win a clutch-time game because we haven’t won one of those this year,” Barnhizer said. “That’s kind of like our staple. We usually win close games.”
Barnhizer said that as the clock ticked down, he thought back to the heartbreak of the Iowa and Butler games. The next time the ’Cats find themselves in a nail-biter, they will have a more positive memory to recall.
“It was really good to get one of those under our belt,” Barnhizer said. “So now we have the confidence to go do it again.”
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