EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern (8-2) committed a gruesome and gruesome murder within two hours on Monday night at the Welsh-Ryan Arena.
It was exactly what everyone expected, as the Wildcats dominated Division II opponents Illinois-Springfield (4-7) from start to finish and won 90:50. Pete Nance led the way for Northwestern with 15 points and eight rebounds. Boo Buie and Ty Berry followed him with 11 points each. Berry shot 3 for 6 from beyond the bow.
Although this game was played against a Division II opponent, there was no change to Northwestern’s starters, with Buie, Chase Audige, Berry, Robbie Beran, and Nance all taking the court.
Both teams started offensive, but the ‘Cats got the goal underway with a three from Buie almost two and a half minutes into the competition. Thirty seconds later, Buie nailed another three to give NU a 6-0 lead. After that, Nance added a layup, forcing UIS to take an early break after just four minutes in the game.
After the break, UIS got its first bucket of the game with a one layup from James Kelley. However, he failed to convert the free throw and from then on the Wildcats continued to pile it up. Not long after the Kelley layup, Northwestern led 15-2. Newcomer Evan Altman added a three for the Prairie Stars but overall the ‘Cats continued to dominate as they led 20-5 on the U-12 media timeout.
Julian Roper saw some early minutes for the Wildcats when he came into the game after the media break. Some first years saw action early, with Roper and Casey Simmons ending up with 17 and 20 minutes respectively. Brooks Barnhizer also checked in late in the first half and finished the game on 11 minutes.
UIS was able to chain a few stops, but for the most part the Prairie Stars just weren’t able to get their shots hit. Northwestern’s lead continued to grow. The ‘Cats were in the lead at 27:10 for just under eight minutes to go and showed few signs of giving up their lead.
After the short break, NU continued to stack. Nance hit a nice pick-and-pop jumper and extended the ‘Cats’ lead to 19. Not long after that, he returned Kelley by the post, only to put a hookshot right over him. Nance finished the first half with 11 points on 4-of-7.
As halftime drew to a close, the scores went back and forth, with Northwestern’s lead never exceeding 21 points. The Prairie Stars struggled to fill the gap in the final minutes, but the Wildcats were still 47:29 after the first 20.
The second half soon began. Within the first minute of the action, Audige – who was largely calm about the goals – knocked out an attempted layup by Chris Hamil from UIS. A few games later, Audige slammed home a praise from Berry for getting the Wildcats to 22. Northwestern flew into the second half, with Beran ending a praise from Audige on the next possession.
After a UIS timeout, Audige landed another slam dunk, this time by posting a Prairie Star defender. Not long after that, Nance took a quick pause and threw one down as well. Eight of the first 10 points in Northwestern’s second half came from a dunk, highlighting the lack of height in the Illinois-Springfield lineup – the Prairie Stars didn’t have anyone over 6-foot-6 in their typical rotation.
As the second half went on, Young kicked things up in the post and scored consecutive possession for the ‘Cats. At this point, Northwestern’s lead ranged from just under to just over 30 points. When the U-12 media break came, the Wildcats doubled the Prairie Stars as they led 66:33.
After the break, UIS did its best to diminish Northwestern’s lead, but the ‘Cats had too much firepower offensively. While Illinois Springfield brought down a few buckets, NU was always able to keep up. By the time the clock passed halfway through the second half, the ‘Cats remained in control, 35 points clear.
The clock was turned down further and the Wildcats were soon backing up again. Collins and Co. rolled up a line-up of Ryan Greer, Roper, Simmons, Barnhizer and Matt Nicholson with about eight minutes of playing time. Barnhizer won the first regular season basket of his career with an open three, then added two more points to the charity streak. After these free throws, UIS also brought its submarines into play.
As the game ended, the scoring began to slow down. Nicholson hit the scorers list with a hook but missed two free throws shortly thereafter. Roy Dixon III saw some action too, hitting Simmons once with a nice no-look pass. Other than that, there wasn’t much to write home about as the ‘Cats finished the game and ended up winning at 40.
The Wildcats return on December 30th at 4:00 p.m. CT on Big Ten Network against a winless Prairie View A&M team.
