After Northwestern’s Feb. 4 victory over USC, coach Chris Collins underscored the necessity of aggressive shooting as his team faced the challenge of adjusting to life without two key starters.
That night, junior forward Nick Martinelli picked up much of the slack, firing off 25 shots and making 11 — a heavy workload for an already dominant player stepping into a larger leadership role.
But when the Wildcats (13-13, 4-11 Big Ten) squared off against Nebraska Sunday, their early offensive firepower wasn’t enough to stave off a late Cornhuskers (17-9, 7-8 Big Ten) surge.
Despite racking up 72 attempted shots, NU watched as a 20-point lead dissolved in the face of Nebraska’s relentless second-half rally, ultimately losing 68-64.
Martinelli and graduate student guard Ty Berry were the lone bright spots, each contributing 23 points on a combined 43 shot attempts — just two fewer than the entire visiting offense.
“If you play us, you’re gonna stay on Nick, and you’re gonna stay on Ty,” Collins said of his two leading scorers postgame.
With Berry on pace to surpass his career-high of 26 points — already at 23 with over 15 minutes remaining — he abruptly stopped shooting after the 14:31 mark.
“I think they were more aware in the second half,” Berry said. “They did a good job of closing out and knowing where I was.”
Unfortunately for the ’Cats, the rest of the team struggled to contribute in his stead. Four players besides Martinelli and Berry managed to get on the scoreboard, with freshman guard Angelo Ciaravino’s six points leading the way among the auxiliary production.
This loss marked the third game since junior guard Justin Mullins and sophomore guard Jordan Clayton were thrust into starting roles.
While both had shown flashes of promise earlier this month — Mullins scoring double digits in back-to-back games against USC and Washington, and Clayton stepping up as the primary ball handler after the team’s season-ending injury crisis — it wasn’t enough. Without additional support from the bench, NU’s once-commanding lead slipped through their fingers.
In the team’s most recent loss at Oregon, freshman guard K.J. Windham posted a career night, racking up 20 points in his most playing time of NU’s Big Ten slate.
Against Nebraska, however, Mullins, Clayton and Windham combined for just four points — equivalent to their total number of turnovers.
22 of NU’s 28 second-half points came from the hands of Berry and Martinelli as the Cornhuskers more than doubled their first-half production in the final 20 minutes.
“We can talk about turnovers and missing shots and all that, but our defense wasn’t where it needed to be in the second half, and that’s why we lost,” Collins said. “We had some really critical breakdowns on simple ball screen actions where we didn’t talk through switches.”
Collins attributed much of the defensive collapse to his young rotation’s lack of experience, noting that while NU’s defense plays closest to its own bench in the first half — allowing for real-time coaching and adjustments — it must rely more heavily on instinct in the second half, where fewer instructions can be relayed.
“Part of that’s having guys that have never played in these games,” Collins said. “But obviously it’s on me and our staff to be able to coach these guys up, to have them perform under pressure, because this is who we have right now.”
Email: audreypachuta2027@u.northwestern.edu
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