In his 12th season at the helm for Northwestern, coach Chris Collins has yet to crack the code at the State Farm Center.
The last time the Wildcats (12-8, 3-6 Big Ten) visited Illinois in January 2024, they were handed a 96-66 blowout — their largest defeat of the 2023-24 season.
Since then, NU has bounced back with two-straight wins at home against their in-state rivals. But on the road, the ’Cats couldn’t keep that winning momentum going, falling to the Fighting Illini (14-6, 5-5 Big Ten) 83-74 Sunday.
For Collins’s group, the Sunday grind has become all too familiar: four consecutive weeks of losses to ranked teams, three of which were in enemy territory.
Both the ’Cats and their opponents got off to quiet starts Sunday, with the two squads shooting a combined 2-of-12 from the field at the first media timeout.
But as NU’s shooting remained ice-cold, the Fighting Illini took off and never looked back, amassing a 20-point lead with five minutes left to play in the first half.
By halftime, the ’Cats trailed 43-21 and hopes of a potential comeback looked bleak.
Despite trailing by 20-plus points for large portions of the second half, NU cut the deficit to as few as eight points in the game’s final minute, with graduate student center Keenan Fitzmorris, junior guard Justin Mullins and freshman guard K.J. Windham all cashing in late buckets.
Here are three takeaways from NU’s loss at Illinois Sunday:
1. First half miscues
At the 12:16 mark of the opening half, Windham dribbled the ball at the top of the key before passing it on to senior guard Brooks Barnhizer with five seconds left to shoot.
Barnhizer dribbled the ball towards the corner and looked shocked when the officials blew the whistle to call a shot-clock violation.
After both teams struggled to find their offensive footing in the game’s opening minutes, Illinois had begun to pull away on a 6-0 run when Barnhizer recorded NU’s third turnover of the afternoon. Less than three minutes later, the hosts led by 15.
While Barnhizer’s mental faux pas wasn’t the only factor that led to a 22-point Fighting Illini-lead at halftime, it was the type of error NU simply couldn’t afford in what was already poised to be an uphill battle against a dominant Illinois squad.
2. Shooting woes
In the first 11 and a half minutes of Sunday’s matchup, NU struggled to find its rhythm, managing just five points while missing seven straight field goals over a nearly five-and-a-half-minute scoring drought.
Illinois’ defense stifled NU’s top scorers —Barnhizer, who averages 18.5 points per game and Martinelli, who averages 19.9 points per game, to just seven first-half points on a combined 2-of-15 shooting clip.
Barnhizer did not make a single shot from the floor in the first half and went 1-of-2 from the charity stripe in NU’s lone trip to the foul line in the game’s opening 20 minutes.
By the end of the first half, NU was shooting 26% from the field.
While Martinelli found his rhythm in the second half and finished with 17 points, Barnhizer continued to struggle. He played just 26 minutes on Sunday and finished with three points—his lowest of the season.
3. Illinois dominates on the glass
NU’s struggles on Sunday went beyond missed shots as they were outclassed on the boards 49-to-28.
Entering the contest, the Fighting Illini led the Big Ten in rebounding at 44.7 per game, and had outpaced their opponents on the glass in 16 of 19 games this season.
In their previous meeting in December, Illinois narrowly edged out NU 44-43 on the boards. But on Sunday, the gap was much wider, with the Fighting Illini recording more offensive rebounds, 21, than the ’Cats’ total defensive rebounds, 18.
Barnhizer, who leads NU in rebounds at 9.2 per game, was held to just three boards Sunday.
Email: audreypachuta2027@u.northwestern.edu
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