In a tale that’s become all too common for the Wildcats, Northwestern stayed competitive with No. 7 Nebraska until the Cornhuskers were finally able to find themselves in the latter parts of the second-half, beating the ‘Cats 68-49.
For Northwestern, Nick Martinelli led the way with just 11 points but still struggled throughout the game, going 4-for-12 from the field.
As for Nebraska, Pryce Sandfort paced the team with 29 points and six threes. Sam Hoiberg had 14 points and seven rebounds.
The Nebraska defense was hitting the Wildcats hard on the offensive end, forcing three turnovers on Northwestern’s first three offensive possessions. After a charge was called on Jayden Reid, the Cornhuskers were able to turn the extra possession into three with Sandfort hitting a triple for the game’s first points.
Tyler Kropp responded with a midrange jumper for Northwestern’s first points of the game, but Sandfort wasn’t done, hitting his second three of the game just 30 seconds after the first. Outside of Sandfort, the offense was hard to come by with both teams who were sitting at just 6-2 and each shooting under 30% from the floor.
After Sam Hoiberg hit both of his free throws, Arrinten Page made his presence known off the bench, tipping in a second-chance layup to keep the game at a margin of four. Following a couple solid defensive possessions, Angelo Ciaravino tipped in a second-chance bucket and then Jake West shot the passing lane and slammed it down on a Nebraska defender to tie the game up at eight apiece.
Out of the game’s second media timeout, Tre Singleton floated in two to bring the game even at 10. Singleton would force yet another Nebraka turnover and Reid would turn that into a midrange jumper to take the lead at 12-10 for Northwestern.
After Rienk Mast tied the game back up, the ‘Cats would rip off two straight buckets with a Ciravino triple and a crafty layup from Reid to push the lead up to 17-12 with under 8 minutes remaining in the half. The Wildcats continued to pressure the Huskers on defense, turning the ball over twice within a minute and converting an and-one for Singleton on a fastbreak opportunity. The Nebraska scoring drought wouldn’t last much longer, with Braden Frager hitting a three to break it, followed it with a Hoiberg layup and the Mast converting an and-one on a second-chance opportunity to tie the game at 20.
Northwestern responded out of the break well, forcing a shot-clock violation and then getting a rare five-point play after Jordan Clayton hit a three, Nebraska committed a foul away from him and Clayton hit another jumper to bring the Cats’ back up five. Nebraska hit the Wildcats right back, sinking two triples via Frager and Sandfort and another Hoiberg layup, only offset by a Nick Martinelli layup before NU took a timeout. Northwestern was unable to convert on the final possession, and left the half down 28-27 after leading by as much as eight.
Ciaravino, Singleton and Clayton led the ‘Cats with five each while Martinelli struggled with just two points on 1-for-8 shooting. Sandfort was the leader at the half for the Huskers, scoring a game-high 11 points on 3-for-8 shooting from deep while Hoiberg was just behind him with 8 points on 3-for-4 shooting from the floor.
After Northwestern forced another shot-clock violation to begin the second half, Reid opened the scoring column, sinking his first triple of the game. For Nebraska, it was none other than Sandfort responding with a layup. Martinelli showed some life after his rough first half, turning a Singleton forced turnover into two for the ’Cats with a fastbreak slam.
Nebraska would gain some momentum with Sandfort once again answering with his fourth three-pointer. Jamarques Lawrence put up his first points of the game, breaking away for a fastbreak layup that gave the lead right back to Nebraska.
Northwestern continued to ramp up the defensive pressure, forcing three more turnovers and bringing the Huskers’ total to a staggering 16 with 13 minutes still remaining. Nebraska wasn’t alone in those struggles, as the Wildcats had committed 10 turnovers themselves at the same point.
Nebraska began to get a pulse as the game closed in on 10 minutes remaining. Berke Buyuktuncel tipped-in a second-chance bucket, Sandfort sank another three and the ‘Cats allowed another putback to Hoiberg, who was able to draw a foul on his miss.
Martinelli was able to lessen the damage, continuing his decent second-half, getting to the line twice on two possessions and sinking a midrange jumper. But with Nebraska finding its shot again, the close game soon started to come apart. Cale Jacobsen of the Cornhuskers was able to hit back to back threes for Nebraska, bringing the home squad up to a game-high nine point lead.
The timeout was not enough to cool off the Huskers shooting, with Sandfort hitting his sixth triple of the game in response to a Page dunk on the possession prior. After an injury timeout for UNL’s Frager — who returned to the game and hit his free throws — Northwestern continued to commit mistake, after mistake. Hoiberg was able to hit a three from the top of the arc and force mistakes, leading to the Huskers expanding the lead to 16 with just over 15 minutes.
Northwestern continued to drag themselves to yet another blown lead, going down by as much as 21, falling to Nebraska for the second time this season with a final score of 68-49.
The ‘Cats will be back in action on Wednesday, taking on Maryland at 7 p.m. CT on BTN.