Craig Moore was anxious to return to the Mackey Arena court after Northwestern coach Bill Carmody took him and other starters out for a break. But after a few minutes, Moore was content to remain a spectator for a while longer as the Northwestern bench players’ hustle weakened Purdue.
“At first I was itching to come back in,” Moore said, “but I was like, ‘If they’re going to win it for us, let them win it.'”
They did what Moore hoped, helping the Wildcats craft a 64-61 upset victory to spoil No. 19 Purdue’s senior night and quiet the usually raucous Paint Crew.
Purdue (22-8, 11-6 Big Ten) led by 10 points early in the second half, but during a timeout around the eight-minute mark, Carmody supplanted starters with substitutes Sterling Williams, Luka Mirkovic and Jeremy Nash. They were key elements during a stretch when Purdue went nearly nine minutes without scoring and Northwestern (17-11, 8-9) took a 56-47 lead with a 17-1 run.
“Those guys played with as much heart as anybody I’d ever seen,” Moore said. “I’m so proud of those guys who rebounded, played defense and made some big shots.”
During the week, Northwestern’s coaches wrote statistics on a board to highlight how Purdue dominates the second half of games. The message was implanted in the Wildcats’ brains.
Northwestern outrebounded the Boilermakers 20-13 and outscored them 36-26 after halftime using a man-to-man defense. Mirkovic, a freshman center, played one of his best games with six points, five assists and eight rebounds, five offensive.
“Our whole motto was control the tempo of the game and don’t let them go out on a big run, and we were able to do that,” said Williams, who scored four points in 10 minutes.
Purdue closed to 58-56 with 32 seconds left, but their free-throw shooting cost them. Robbie Hummel missed a free throw in the bonus with 14 seconds remaining, and Northwestern connected on all four of its final free throws.
“Purdue had some open shots, stuff they normally make,” Carmody said. “It just didn’t go down.”
Kevin Coble led the Wildcats with 16 points and eight rebounds.
The victory marks Northwestern’s third in a row and tied Michigan for eighth place in the Big Ten, while Purdue has lost two of three and is in a tie with Illinois for second place with one regular-season game remaining on each team’s schedule.
“It’s about time,” Moore said of the Wildcats’ success this season, recording the team’s most victories since the 1982-83 season.
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sryan@tribune.com
