Northwestern played its final home game of the season Saturday afternoon. It turned out to be the Wildcats’ best game of a season that has become a lot less disappointing in the last eight days.
Giving the sellout crowd of 8,117 in Welsh-Ryan Arena something to remember them by, they raced to a 100-89 victory over Wisconsin, probably knocking the Badgers out of NCAA tournament consideration.
A week after ending their Big 10 road losing streak at 60 by upsetting Purdue, the Wildcats staged an encore.
The 100 points by the normally low-scoring Wildcats (8-17, 3-13) were the most they’ve scored in a Big 10 game since the 1975-76 season, when Michigan State was blown away 105-89.
The game was won at the foul line, where Northwestern made 38 of 48. But the Wildcats also flaunted some other dazzling numbers-a .650 field goal percentage in the second half and 40 rebounds to the Badgers’ 30.
All five starters-sophomore Cedric Neloms, juniors Kevin Rankin, Patrick Baldwin and Kip Kirkpatrick, and senior Charles Howell-scored in double figures.
Showing the way was Neloms, who scored a career-high 36 points. The forward sank 12 of 19 field goal attempts and 12 of 17 foul shots.
“Patrick Baldwin and Kip Kirkpatrick were getting me the ball in scoring position,” said Neloms. “I was in the right place at the right time.”
And Wisconsin (14-11, 7-9) was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Things are looking pretty bleak right now,” said coach Stu Jackson. “We’ve backed ourselves against a wall. We have to go out now and beat two teams that have been ranked in the top 20 all year (Iowa and Indiana). That’s a big mountain to climb.
“You have to give credit to Northwestern. The bottom line was we were unable to stop them. They were a better team.
“They did a good job of throwing the ball over our press. We were in the press a lot more than we want to be on the road, but we didn’t have a choice.”
The Wildcats seized command early, scoring 13 points in a row to race to a 21-7 lead.
After falling behind by 17 with 1:20 remaining, the Badgers scored the last 10 points of the first half to slash NU’s lead to 49-43. Instigating the counterattack was Jason Johnsen, who came off the bench to sink two straight three-point shots.
“It was a torrid pace, and we withstood a bunch of challenges, particularly the one at the end of the first half,” said NU coach Bill Foster. “We were very opportunistic. They’re an explosive team, but we felt we could get two-on-ones and exploit that. And we got on the foul line a lot.”
At the start of the second half Wisconsin went back on the three-point attack, twice cutting the NU lead to four points.
But Northwestern took retaliatory action by outscoring the visitors 11-3.
Substitute center Jeff Petersen’s scoring from underneath put the Badgers back in threatening position. However, the closest they could come was 72-67 on a three-pointer by Michael Finley with 9:10 remaining.
Wisconsin kept fouling down the stretch and NU repeatedly made clutch free throws. Only the last two of the Wildcsts’ final 12 points came on a field goal.
Although floor general Baldwin fouled out with 43 seconds left, the Wildcats retained their poise.
The Wildcats will end their season on the road, playing Monday night at Iowa and Saturday afternoon at Michigan.
“We’re playing as hard as we possibly can,” said Baldwin. “We know we have nothing to look forward to except the end of the season. But we also know we still have a lot to do here next year.”
