Cats’ Corner: Your source for NU athletics

By Adam Fusfeld

For the first 35 minutes of Thursday’s game, the Purdue faithful were silent. Suddenly, with their team trailing by five, the visiting fans had reason to cheer.

Boilermaker guard Keaton Grant hit a 3-pointer to push the score to 57-52, bringing the game as close as it had been since early in the first half.

With that shot, momentum was slipping away from the Wildcats.

“They’re a top 20 team, so they’re going to make a push,” junior forward Kevin Coble said.

Northwestern held an 11-point advantage with as little as eight minutes remaining in the game. But No. 19 Purdue did not stop pushing until it erased the deficit and walked away from Welsh-Ryan Arena with a 63-61 win.

“We did a pretty good job of withstanding their push,” he said. “But we have to push back and make sure that we shut them down and put them away.”

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Craig Moore and Kevin Coble sat on the bench for much of the first half in foul trouble. The two star players both picked up their second fouls by the 12 minute mark of the first half. Northwestern’s other players had to preserve a 17-9 lead.

Thanks to some strong defense, they did and gave the senior guard and the junior forward the chance to take over in the second half.

The Wildcats quickly extended a six-point halftime lead to 11 and extended the lead to as much as 20 in a 66-55 win Tuesday at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

NU (8-2) never let SMU get closer than that six-point halftime deficit in the second half, ending a successful nonconference schedule. The Mustangs (3-6) closed to within nine late in the game, but never threatened the Cats’ second half lead.

Moore finished with 14 points and sophomore guard Michael Thompson also scored 14 points in 37 minutes. Coble added nine points, freshman forward John Shurna had 13 and freshman center Kyle Rowley chipped in nine points.

Thompson’s play in the first half helped NU maintain its lead, but a strong effort from the team’s bench — especially defensively — kept SMU from taking a halftime lead. Junior guard Jeremy Nash filled in for Coble defensively, hounding the Mustangs’ guards at the top of the Cats’ zone.

NU continued its strong defensive play holding SMU to 43.5 percent and scoring 22 points off 23 turnovers. The Cats struggled with turnovers themselves with 18.

NU will travel to Penn State for the team’s Big Ten opener next Wednesday.

Northwestern cut the lead to one with 1:42 left, but freshman Luka Mirkovic could not tie the game on the back end of a one and one. Mitch Johnson made the Wildcats pay.

His 3-pointer with 41 seconds left gave Stanford some breathing room as free throws sealed a 65-59 win in Palo Alto, Calif., on Saturday.

Kevin Coble scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds. Craig Moore added eight points on three-of-nine shooting. Freshman forward Luka Mirkovic added seven points and also grabbed six boards.

The Wildcats (7-2) committed 19 turnovers. The Cardinal (7-0) scored 15 points off turnovers. They shot 44.7 percent in the game, but opened as much as a 13-point lead using a 16-2 run for a 39-26 halftime lead.

Stanford hit eight of its first 11 3-point shots, but hit only one more 3-point shot the rest of the game — the game-sealing 3-point shot by Johnson, who finished with a career high 16 points.

John Shurna and Northwestern showed no slowing down after a nine-day break for exams last week.

The freshman forward started a career night by scoring a layup on a backdoor cut along the baseline and hitting NU’s first seven points. Shurna went on to score a career-high 20 points. He also added eight rebounds to pace the Wildcats in a 77-62 win over UMKC on Monday at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

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By Adam Fusfeld

For the second straight game, a major-conference opponent entered Welsh-Ryan Arena with high hopes, only to leave with their heads hanging in defeat.

Northwestern (6-1) started Saturday’s game with a 7-0 run, and did not look back on its way to a 63-36 victory over local rival DePaul. A Craig Moore 3-pointer sandwiched between two Kevin Coble jumpers ignited this early lead. On the other end, the Blue Demons (4-2) turned the ball over twice, and converted on only one of their first 12 attempts from the floor to facilitate the Wildcats’ early advantage.

“We came out really aggressively and we stopped what they wanted to do,” junior forward Kevin Coble said. “We stuck with our stuff, we ran through so much in such a short period of time that we made them play 25-30 seconds of defense. As the possession goes on, it’s hard to guard it for that long. Teams don’t usually like to play that much defense.”
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The defense has kept up its intensity early in the second half. DePaul has found some more holes and is starting to score a little, but Northwestern has answered offensively too. It is no longer just Kevin Coble scoring — although he is still producing, scoring seven already in the half — as the Wildcats hold a 45-27 lead with 11:59 to play.

The Blue Demons’ Dar Tucker is not letting his team fall away completely. He came out hot early, making a few 3-pointers. The sophomore now has 12 points, inching closer to his 20-point average. But the Cats have had an answer.

Craig Moore and John Shurna have started to take and hit more shots as the ball is moving around nicely and picking apart the DePaul defense. NU is still struggling when Coble is not in the game, but the team is still relying heavily on its defense to hold the lead.

The Blue Demons have been unable to mount any serious run so far as they continue to struggle from the field, still shooting below 30 percent. The defense has found a nice groove after an impressive performance against Florida State on Wednesday and into today’s game. It does not even feel like DePaul is getting any good looks at the basket and the team has had few offensive rebounds and second chance opportunities.

Northwestern is once again putting a defensive number on its opponents. DePaul came into the game averaging 71.0 points per game, led by Dar Tucker’s 20.8 points per game. Neither have played well as far as putting points on the scoreboard.

The Blue Demons are shooting only six of 29 from the field and have scored just 15 as the Wildcats lead 31-15 at the half. Tucker has only four points.

Give all the credit to the defense. DePaul has not had good looks at the basket in this game. NU’s 2-3 matchup zone defense is preventing any player from getting an open look at the basket. No one on the Blue Demons has more than four points and no one is shooting better than 33.3 percent in the game. Turnovers are not DePaul’s issue. The team is just not hitting shots. The Cats’ strong defense deserves all the credit.

What might be more surprising is that NU is not leading by more.

The Cats are not doing too great from the field either (although not as bad). They are shooting 44.4 percent. But most of that offense is coming from junior forward Kevin Coble. He has 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting — the rest of the team has made only five shots.

DePaul has not closed the gap to less than 10 points for long in this game since NU took a commanding 7-0 lead early in the game. But the Blue Demons can put pu points and will make adjustments at halftime. While the Cats are playing fantastic on defense, they cannot rely on Coble to provide all of their offense. If the DePaul offensive juggernaut (OK, that might be hyperbole) awakens and starts scoring in bunches, NU will find itself in trouble and losing another halftime lead.

The Blue Demons will make a run of some sort in this game. The Cats have to be ready to respond at the beginning of the second half and put this game away early in the period.

You can usually tell within his first few shots whether junior forward Kevin Coble is going to have a big game. Coble might be in for one of his 30-point performances (think Indiana and Michigan games at home last year) tonight.

Coble hit a floater on the drive for the first points of the game, then sunk a hard hook shot from the post to spark a 7-0 spurt to start the game. Coble has added a couple 3-pointers and has 10 points as Northwestern leads 16-8 with 10:54 left.

You can tell the junior is feeling some confidence because of the shots he has taken. He is not afraid to get open beyond the arc and take some 3-pointers so far. He is two of three from behind the arc, and that one miss may tell you more about his confidence level than anything. The miss was a hurried 3-pointer as he came off a flare screen. Coble is feeling it tonight.

The Wildcats’ defense has been downright oppressive in the early part of this game. DePaul missed 10 of its first 11 shots (some on open looks). The Blue Demons have gotten back into the game offensively because of a clear strategy to get the ball inside to center Matija Poscic. Poscic drew two quick fouls on freshman center Kyle Rowley, bringing the smaller Ivan Peljusic into the game.

Otherwise, NU has been picking apart DePaul’s defense and stifling the team on defense to gain a comfortable lead.

Northwestern returns to action tonight against UC Riverside of the Big West after losing its first game of the season at Butler on Wednesday.

The Wildcats (3-1) led by as many as 12 points in the first half, but could not hold on to the lead late as they closed the gap on the Bulldogs to one point with about 30 seconds left. Sophomore guard Michael Thompson led the way with 12 points and junior guard Craig Moore and sophomore forward Ivan Peljusic added 11.

UC Riverside (4-1) is on a four-game winning streak and has its best record since becoming a Division I school in 2000. The Highlanders defeated Colgate 54-44 in their last outing. UC Riverside allowed only 40 percent shooting and just 4-for-16 shooting in the first half.

Guard Javon Borum was named the Big West’s Player of the Week after he averaged 16.5 points and 3.0 assists in two games last week.

Keys to the Game

1. Defense - in NU’s loss to Butler, the team struggled mightily on the defensive end. Big men Kyle Rowley and John Shurna got into early foul trouble forcing bench players to step up. The Bulldogs shot only 40 percent in the game, but stayed competitive by shooting 24 free throws. The Cats took only six.

2. Get Kevin Coble involved - Coble had his first game under double digits and has struggled to get involved the past two games. After scoring an average of 16.5 points per game in NU’s first two games, he has scored only 6.5 points per game, including Wednesday’s three-point effort. Coble needs to be involved in the offense for this team to find success later in the season.

3. Rebound - always the Cats’ biggest concern. They need to control the boards and use their size to get an advantage on the glass. If the Highlanders can get extra possessions, they can stay competitive longer and have a shot at pulling off the road upset.

There is no let up on offense early in the second half as the Cats continue to get the ball deep into the post through their offense. The teams are going up and down as the lead hovers around 20. The Wildcats have eased up on the defensive pressure as individuals begin asserting themselves.

The teams are exchanging baskets as NU’s lead hovers around 20 points. Neither team has made any serious run in the early stages of the second half.

John Shurna has continued his strong play and Kevin Coble is starting to assert himself more to maintain a comfortable lead. Shurna has 13 points and 6 rebounds while Coble leads the team with 16 points.

Kyle Rowley has had a couple good looks right around the basket that he has been unable to finish. The freshman center was advised before a timeout to slow down by senior Craig Moore.

Rowley has been rushing offensively, especially around the basket. Rather than collecting himself and rising for a finish, he seems to want to get the ball up on the backboard and rim as quickly as possible. He has gotten in really deep in bad angles to do this. Rowley only has two points so far tonight.