The opportunities to win were there, the intent was there, but the execution wasn’t as Northwestern fell on the road to Iowa 76-70.
The Wildcats (10-14, 2-11 Big Ten) were led by senior forward Nick Martinelli with 21 points, but Hawkeyes (18-5, 8-4 Big Ten) guard Bennett Stirtz outpowered them as he scored a career-high 36, shooting four-for-six from behind the arc.
The contest marked NU’s third straight Big Ten defeat, following losses to Washington and No. 5 Illinois.
For the ’Cats, the problems came mostly through turnovers, a rarity this season. Entering into Sunday’s contest, the ’Cats averaged only 8.2 turnovers a game, the fewest in the country. In the first half alone, they had eight before cleaning it up and finishing with 10.
Foul trouble also caused major issues as five NU players had picked up at least two fouls in the first half.
While Martinelli scored the most points for the ’Cats, it was freshman guard Jake West who really put on a show for NU. He started the game perfect from the field with eight points, with two 3-pointers.
West finished the game with a career-high 18 points with four 3-pointers and only one missed shot. He turned heads as he was only averaging 3.5 points per game before Sunday.
Heading into the halftime break, the hometown Hawkeyes held a 39-34 lead over the ’Cats.
A 3-pointer from redshirt freshman Cooper Koch and a layup from Stirtz gave the Hawkeyes a 51-40 lead, their first double-digit advantage of the game with a little over 14 minutes to play.
NU never gave up and closed the gap to three points with a 13-2 run, capitalized by a powerful dunk by West.
With a little over four minutes to play, Singleton fouled out as Iowa extended its lead to six. A stepback 3-pointer from Stirtz saw the ’Cats go down nine.
A 3-pointer of NU’s own from Martinelli saw the ’Cats pull within four with 28 seconds to go, but a missed 3-pointer from junior guard Jayden Reid all but flatlined hope for NU fans.
For the third conference game in a row, the ’Cats couldn’t get it done. Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes picked up their sixth-straight conference win for the first time since the 2015-2016 season.
After scoring only 22 paint points versus Illinois, NU struggled again to get buckets inside, only nabbing 20 in the painted area. The difficulties down low were prevalent in the rebound battle as well, where the ’Cats were a minus 12 on the glass.
The ’Cats will look to stop the bleeding at home on Wednesday against No. 2 Michigan.
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