CHICAGO — In a Friday night matchup with referees’ whistles galore, Northwestern seized a late opportunity at the charity stripe to pull past DePaul 81-79.
Faced with a silent warm up spurred by what were presumably Wintrust Arena audio troubles, the Wildcats (4-0, 0-0 Big Ten) vowed to make their own music in its first road test of the season.
And they didn’t disappoint.
Behind a brilliant duet of senior forward Nick Martinelli and junior center Arrinten Page, NU took down the Blue Demons (2-2, 0-0 Big East) in anxiety-inducing fashion, sealing the deal with two-made foul shots, after a topsy-turvy contest that saw 17 lead changes.
Unlike three previous games played in front of a friendly Welsh-Ryan Arena crowd, this win didn’t come so easily for coach Chris Collins’ 11-man band.
On a night when early season experimentation with a deep rotation reaped dismal results, NU’s bench scored just seven points, compared to DePaul’s 37.
The ‘Cats found themselves in substantial foul trouble, ending the game with four of its starters having four fouls.
Here are three takeaways from NU’s Friday night road win over DePaul:
1. Is Collins’ rotation actually deep? Maybe not.
By the time the contest reached its 12-minute media timeout, Collins had already subbed in all six rotational players who had seen meaningful minutes through three games this season.
As the 13th-year conductor has entered uncharted territory of a deeper bench than he’s commanded in recent history, he hasn’t been shy about the fact that he’s still working out the kinks.
Each time he’s been asked about substitutions so far this season, Collins has made clear that lineups are not pre-determined master plans, but rather subject to change in real time as he assesses game pace and trends.
And while in previous contests his orchestra billowed through Welsh-Ryan with a plethora of unexpected production, some of Collins’ pieces never seemed to find their tune Friday night.
NU’s bench scored just seven points, shooting 2-for-12 from the field.
Despite the early substitutions — with senior guard Justin Mullins becoming the first to enter just under the 17-minute mark — no bench player scored a point until 75 seconds remained in the opening half.
At that impasse, with the ’Cats trailing by a game-high five points, sophomore guard Max Green drained a step-back, long-range jumper to cut the deficit to two. A celebratory smile danced across his face until DePaul followed it up with a 3-pointer of its own.
Luckily for Green and company, NU’s next bench points were just seconds away when sophomore guard K.J. Windham kept up the trend and sent home a trey of his own, setting the score at 44-42 DePaul at the break.
Despite NU’s late first-half momentum, the Blue Demon bench dominated Collins’ through the opening 20 minutes, recording 18 points in comparison to the visitors six.
In the end, the visiting bench failed to provide the spark it had in games past, struggling to keep up against a higher-quality opponent.
As the ’Cats inch closer to their conference schedule, it may be time to consider whether their young squad is ready to weather the storm of big time play.
2. Alongside Martinelli, Page continues to set the standard
After earning the Big Ten regular-season scoring crown in his junior campaign, it was obvious that Martinelli was ready to lead a young NU team into a fresh era.
What wasn’t clear though, was — following the departures of former studs like Brooks Barnhizer, Jalen Leach and Ty Berry — who could produce results on the scoreboard alongside him.
So far, Page has proven he’s up to snuff.
DePaul showed that it was poised to provide substantial competition for NU on Friday night early on, knocking down the game’s first points with a dunk following a missed 3-pointer.
But Page was quick to quiet the Blue Demon crowd, slamming home one of his own on the opposite end.
Then, following another DePaul field goal, Page once again took matters into his own hands, easily placing in a hook shot to tie the game.
And the big man’s responsive play didn’t end there.
On the heels of a first half in which Page and Martinelli led the team with 13 and 12 points, respectively, the latter wasted zero time before knotting the game at 44 apiece 19 seconds after halftime.
But when the hosts delivered a dramatic and-one 3-pointer on the opposite end, Page didn’t let DePaul rain on Martinelli’s parade.
Slamming home another dunk 12 seconds after the Blue Demon free throw, Page set the stage for Martinelli to triumphantly drill a long-range attempt of his own, which they held on to for nearly 10 minutes.
All told, the duo stuffed the stat sheet, combining for 46 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.
3. Seizing opportunities on referees’ quick whistle
Upon an initial glance at the stat sheet, there’s little reason to believe that Friday night’s contest should have been close.
The ’Cats shot 58% from the field compared to DePaul’s 42%, and 44% from beyond the arc, much better than the Blue Demons’ 38%.
DePaul’s leading scorer ended the night with 15 points, while both Page and Martinelli cracked 20-plus.
One place — beside its aforementioned bench-production — where DePaul really shone, was at the charity stripe, taking advantage of each extra chance when their shooting from the floor fell short.
By the end of the first half, the Blue Demons had shot 20 balls from the free-throw line, making 17 of them, while NU had shot eight, making six.
Over the course of the second half, the discrepency in calls grew narrower, but DePaul still managed to tack on 22 points from the stripe
On a tough night for birthday boy Tre Singleton, the freshman forward was the first to find himself in foul trouble, recording his third foul early on in the second half and seeing decreased minutes because of it.
When he re-entered the game, Singleton made a crucial impact, drilling a pull-up 3-point jumper on a fast-break opportunity to make the score 68-64 NU with 8:19 left to play.
10 seconds later, he got whistled for his fourth foul. Then, junior point guard Jayden Reid got called for his fourth.
By that point, three more players — including Page and Martinelli — also had three fouls of their own.
With just about five minutes to play, Martinelli was the next domino to fall and Collins placed him on the bench for safe keeping. The senior forward had played 32 minutes to that point.
As foul calls on both sides dictated the contest’s late narrative, Martinelli ultimately got his revenge, making the two free throws that sealed NU’s win.
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