Hoosiers NCAA Tournament Hopes Dashed in a Home Loss to the Wildcats 

By Nick Jenkinson/Excel H Sports

   The Northwestern Wildcats knocked off the Indiana Hoosiers Tuesday Night 72-68 in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Northwestern has won six straight in the series which is the first time in the history of the series and it’s the first time in program history the Wildcats have beaten any Big Ten team six straight times. Chris Collins has a 5-5 record against Indiana in Bloomington as the Wildcats have won four in a row in Bloomington which is a program record and Collins is 11-8 overall against Indiana and he has third most wins of any active Big Ten Coach in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall behind Purdue’s Matt Painter and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo. Northwestern is 12-16 overall and 4-13 in the Big Ten and they are home for the next two games against Oregon and Purdue and will travel to Minnesota for the regular season finale.

   Indiana is now 17-11 overall and 8-9 in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers could not afford to lose this game and now their chance for the NCAA Tournament will take a major hit as this will be considered a bad loss. The Hoosiers the Host Michigan State and Minnesota at Ohio State to close out the regular season. The Hoosiers have lost three in a row after being blown out at Illinois and Purdue by a combined 49 points. Indiana led 42-33 at halftime and the Wildcats outscored the Hoosiers 39-26 in the second half.

   Nick Martinelli led Northwestern with 28 points and recorded his 40th career game with 20 or more points. The Senior scored 21 of his 28 in the second half and finished the game 12-21 from the field, 1-3 from the three-point line and 3-4 from the free throw line. Jake West scored 16 points and Arrinten Page added 10 points off the bench. Northwestern finished 26-54 from the field for 48%, 6-13 from three-point range for 46% and 14-18 from the free throw line for 77%. The Wildcats had 34 rebounds, 15 assists, 4 steals, 3 blocks and 9 turnovers. The Wildcats scored 26 points in the paint, 19 bench points, 14 points off turnovers, 12 second chance points and 5 fastbreak points.

   Lamar Wilkerson scored 18 points to lead Indiana and 14 points from Tayton Conerway off the bench. Sam Alexis scored 13 points, and Tucker DeVries scored 11 points. The Hoosiers were 23-50 from the field for 46%, 10-28 from three-point range for 36% and 12-14 from the free throw line for 85%. Indiana had 23 rebounds, 18 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks and 10 turnovers. Indiana scored 24 points in the paint, 18 bench points, 9 points off turnovers, 1 second chance point and no fastbreak points.

   Wilkerson was 5-8 from the field and 4-7 from three-point range in the first half for 14 points but he was held to four points in the second half as the Hoosiers made two of their last 15 shots from the field and at one point during that stretch, they missed 11 in a row. Tucker Devries had a chance to tie the game at 71-71 as he was fouled on the three-point shot but no call was made and Northwestern sealed the game with an Arrinten Page free throw with one second left to win by four and leave Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall with just their sixth win against the Hoosiers and 39 defeats. Indiana leads the all-time series 120-58 which is the most wins against any Big Ten Conference opponent.

   After the game Tucker DeVries and Lamar Wilkerson were devastated as the Hoosiers let one slip away when asked about the foul DeVries said He said he couldn’t see it. I mean, that’s his explanation. That’s all I can give you. I thought it was a foul. It’s part of the game. That’s all I’m going to give.” Wilkerson knows that this hurts the Hoosiers’ chances for the tournament and knows that the Hoosiers gave the game away. “It’s just one-on-ones that hurt, man. This was what our resume was — this hurt our resume. Now we must try to go get these next ones and put our focus towards that. Ultimately, man, shouldn’t have come down to the ref. We shouldn’t have put the ref in the position to make that call. When we were up, we shouldn’t have got comfortable. We just got to do better, man. We just got to do better.” Lamar Wilkerson said after the game.

  Indiana Head Coach Darian DeVries did not have a lot to say about the no foul call at the end of the game. “Yeah, it’s a tough play. It happens fast. You know, that’s just what it is.” Indiana now must get ready for Michigan State on Sunday and put this one behind them. “Yeah, I mean, it was a tough loss. We have a big home stand here. This was the first game of it. We’re at that point in the year where games have become very meaningful and it was an opportunity. We certainly wanted to get started off on the front of the home stand with a good note. You know, it didn’t happen, so there is still — like I told them, we must make sure that we put it away. We got a big game on Sunday and then we got to come ready to go. It’s a very good Michigan State team. We’re going to have to really look in the mirror a little bit and get some things figured out before we play again on Sunday” DeVries said after the game.

    Indiana still has opportunities in front of them but now the road gets tougher to make the Big Dance with a couple of very bad losses on the resume. Indiana has struggled to put together a complete game especially in Big Ten play and their lack of a true post player has showed up big time getting outrebounded in most games. Northwestern had nothing to lose and Coach Chris Collins does a great job with he has to work it even though the season is not going the way he wanted but the Wildcats might have burst the NCAA Tournament Bubble of the Hoosiers.