Northwestern
Indiana
Northwestern Falls 73-62 At Indiana
1/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan 17, 2004
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - A heady week for the Northwestern men's basketball team was derailed, at least for the time being, as the Wildcats fell to Indiana Saturday afternoon, 73-62.
Coming off a win last weekend at Iowa -- just its second in Iowa City since 1963 -- the Wildcat program got more good news Monday with the announcement that Duke's Mike Thompson would be transferring to Evanston. On Wednesday, the 'Cats defeated 25th-ranked Illinois in Evanston for the first time since 1994; it was NU's first win over the Illini at any venue since 1999.
On Saturday, the Wildcats were able to close an 11-point gap to one before halftime, and even took the lead with the first bucket of the second half. However, the Hoosiers were able to pull away after that against an NU squad that was missing its second-leading scorer and rebounder, Vedran Vukusic -- the sophomore was injured in Wednesday's win over Illinois and did not make the trip to Bloomington.
Bracey Wright scored 16 points and Marshall Srickland added 15 Saturday to lead Indiana (8-6, 2-1 Big Ten), which moved into a tie for first place in the Big Ten.
Northwestern (7-8, 2-2 Big Ten) took its only lead early in the second half on a 3-pointer by T.J. Parker, but Strickland made two free throws and Wright hit a 3-pointer to give the Hoosiers the lead for good.
Three 3-pointers by Strickland and two baskets by Pat Ewing Jr. helped Indiana to a 50-38 lead with eight minutes to go, and the Wildcats never recovered. The Hoosiers' biggest lead was at 16 points twice in the final minute.
Northwestern has not won at Indiana since 1968, and has never won in 30 games in Assembly Hall.
Indiana never trailed in the first half, but couldn't put Northwestern out of reach, even after 3-pointers by Roderick Wilmont and Wright keyed a 9-0 run for a 22-11 lead.
The Wildcats answered with the first basket by Jitim Young and two straight acrobatic buckets from Mohamed Hachad, who led Northwestern and matched his career high with 18 points.
After Wilmont scored again for the Hoosiers, Hachad hit a 3-pointer to cut the Indiana lead to 24-20. Sean Kline put the Hoosiers up 26-20, but Young scored again, and then Parker hit a trey in the final seconds to pull Northwestern to 26-25 at halftime.
The Wildcats' only lead was at 28-26 on Parker's trifecta at the start of the second half.
Young finished with 17 points, 13 of which came in the second half.
Northwestern will be back in action Wednesday night, hosting Michigan State at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Tip time is slated for 6 p.m. CST.
