Northwestern defeated the rival Wisconsin Badgers in front of a raucous student section to improve to 4-5 in the Big Ten and 12-7 overall. The win came in spite of a poor performance by star junior Kevin Coble, who finished with just seven points. With Coble struggling, it was senior Craig Moore who provided most of the offense. Moore scored 26 points and made four three-pointers. But, it was his heroics at the free throw line that saved the day for NU.
After a back and forth game, Northwestern took a 56-55 lead with 2:26 to go on a Kevin Coble lay up. Coble then stole the ball and the ‘Cats scored again, this time on a layup by Luka Mirkovic, to push the lead to three. The two teams then traded baskets, leaving Northwestern’s lead at three points with 13 seconds to go. The Badgers had to foul the ‘Cats and hope that they missed at least one free throw to give Wisconsin a chance to tie the game without making a three pointer. Moore ensured the Badgers never got such a chance. In the last 11 seconds of play Moore went six for six from the charity stripe to keep the ‘Cats up by at least three. Then, after coming through at the line, Moore stole the ball on the Badgers last possession to seal the ‘Cats victory.
The purple and white had to be pleased with the impressive student turnout at Saturday’s game. Both sides of the student section were completely full and for once Welsh-Ryan seemed more like Cameroon Indoor Stadium than a middle school gym. Chants of “Let’s go ‘Cats,” echoed loudly off the walls and in the fourth quarter students at the student section near the Northwestern bench started batting around a blow up doll wearing a purple t-shirt. Though NU coach Bill Carmody probably doesn’t have a blow up doll in mind when he talks about creating a home advantage, he was probably still pleased with the energy the students showed.
Northwestern’s victory avenged a 29-point loss at Wisconsin earlier this year. Since the beat down in Madison, the two teams have gone in opposite directions. NU is 4-2 since the earlier game while the Badgers have lost all six games since.
Trevon Hughes was the Badgers leading scorer with fifteen points.
The Wildcats, now in seventh place in the conference, return to action on Wednesday against inter-city rival Chicago State. Their next Big Ten game will be next Saturday, February 7th, at Iowa. The Hawkeyes are just 2-6 in the Big Te