It was a classic tale of two halves in Evanston on Wednesday night as Indiana continued its hunt for resumé-building wins. After a first half that featured very few redeeming qualities offensively, one team was able to execute its halftime adjustments, and the other was left in desperation. Indiana scratched and clawed until the final buzzer, but ultimately came up short in a 79-70 defeat.
Both sides got off to slow starts as turnovers plagued any sort of offensive rhythm. That was until the Ty Berry show took center stage. The Northwestern guard would go on an 11-0 individual run on perfect shooting to give the Wildcats a 23-13 lead.
Following a timeout from Indiana head coach Mike Woodson, the Hoosiers would close the final 8:41 of the half on an 18-2 run that featured spectacular defense. While Indiana still struggled on the offensive end, it did just enough to hold onto a 31-25 halftime lead.
“I thought we played a beautiful first half,” Woodson said.
The second half was not as beautiful.
Northwestern came out of the locker room on fire and did not let up. Thanks to the strong play of Oumar Ballo and Luke Goode, Indiana would stay afloat and trail 54-52 heading into the under-eight media timeout. From then on, mistakes proved costly.
“We just didn’t answer the bell coming back out of that timeout, and they did,” Woodson said.
Thanks to an array of Indiana turnovers and defensive miscommunications, an avalanche of Northwestern 3-pointers started to put this game out of reach. The Wildcat lead ballooned to 14 at 70-56 heading into the final media timeout. Despite an Indiana comeback led by Goode and Mackenzie Mgbako — who led IU with 20 points — that cut the lead to 72-68, free throws iced this one away.
Northwestern, a team that only scores 72 points per game, scored 54 second-half points, shooting 62.5 percent from the field and 9-for-14 from 3. All 54 second-half points were scored by four players: Berry, Brooks Barnhizer, Jalen Leach and Nick Martinelli. Defensively, Northwestern forced nine Indiana turnovers in the half, scoring 17 points off of those turnovers.
“You have to give them credit,” Woodson said. “They played their butts off in the second half, and we didn’t.”
Woodson remains winless against Northwestern, losing his fifth consecutive game to Chris Collins’ squad. It is the first time Indiana has lost five straight to the Wildcats in 115 years.
The Hoosiers move to 14-6 on the year with a 5-4 record in conference play. In desperate need of quality wins, they will not have to look far for the opportunity as the toughest remaining schedule in the Big Ten looms. It all starts when Maryland comes to Bloomington on Sunday.
