In a game that held its suspense until the final buzzer, Northwestern needed its leaders to come through and carry the team to victory. Junior Kevin Coble and senior Craig Moore did exactly that, making several big plays down the stretch in a 77-75 victory against the Indiana Hoosiers.
The ‘Cats led by double digits for a large portion of the second half before Indiana went on an 11-2 run to cut Northwestern’s lead to 70-69 with 3:30 to play. It was then that Coble, who struggled in the first half, took over. He scored five consecutive points that initially seemed would be enough to preserve the game for NU.
However, the Hoosiers proved resilient yet again and converted back to back 3-pointers to tie up the game with less than a minute on the clock.
With 36 seconds to go, NU got possession, allowing the ‘Cats to play for the final shot. Indiana’s defense then locked up the ‘Cats and it appeared that the game was destined to head to overtime. But, as Craig Moore dribbled rightward he was fouled by Indiana’s Devin Dumes with 6.6 seconds left. The foul was a poor one, as Moore looked unable to get off a quality shot attempt from his position on the floor. Moore then made both free throws of the one and one situation, putting Northwestern ahead, 77-75.
The Hoosiers had one last chance for the upset but Kevin Coble stole the ball, which was never really fully controlled by Indiana after the inbound pass, and was able to elude fouls long enough for the clock to hit zero.
In addition to providing the game-winning free throws, Moore was also Northwestern’s leading scorer with 21 points, 15 of which came on 3-pointers. Coble finished the game with 19 points. In addition, the Arizona native recorded his 1,000th career point on a bank shot in the second half.
Devan Dumes led the way for Indiana, now 5-14 overall and still winless in the Big Ten, with 26 points.
For both teams, the game was poorly played. There were 41 combined turnovers and 39 free throw attempts. As a result, a flow never developed and the two teams seemed to trade fouls back and forth for most of the second half. Perhaps the choppy play was due in part to a clock problem that put a 15 minute delay on the start of the second half– long enough for the fans at Welsh-Ryan Arena to be subjected to both the “Cha Cha Slide” and the “YMCA.”
Despite the sloppy play by the ‘Cats, the team now has three Big Ten wins, as much as they had in the two previous seasons combined. NU is 11-7 overall and appears to be in good shape for a berth in at least the NIT.
Northwestern’s next game will be Saturday night, when the ‘Cats host the Wisconsin Badgers. Tip off is set for 7:00 p.m..