Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
UT-Pan American
Northwestern Downs Texas-Pan American, 56-48
12/31/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 31, 2004
Box Score
EVANSTON, Ill. - Tim Doyle came off the bench to score a career-high 13 points to lead Northwestern to a 56-48 win over Texas-Pan American on Friday.
Northwestern (7-5) has now won six of its last seven after a 1-4 start, and the 'Cats improved to 28-5 at home against nonconference opponents under fifth-year head coach Bill Carmody.
For the third straight game, the Wildcats led from the start. However, also for the third game in a row, they could not shake their opposition, allowing the Broncs to hang around and keep the Welsh-Ryan Arena crowd of 3,801 nervous.
NU scored the first six points of the game Friday afternoon and were able to build the lead to double digits with just under eight minutes left in the first half. Texas-Pan American (7-5) drew within six on a pair of occasions, but Vince Scott hit a jumper with just under two minutes to play, and then Evan Seacat drained a three-pointer from the corner just before the buzzer to send the teams into the locker room with the Wildcats up, 34-23.
Vedran Vukusic -- who saw a string of 14 consecutive games scoring in double figures end Friday when he scored nine points -- hit a jumper to start the second half for Northwestern, but the Broncs used an 11-2 run over a four-minute span to draw within four (43-39) with 11:30 to play.
Doyle hit a pair of free throws with 11:18 to play, and then both teams suddenly went ice-cold on offense. In fact, it would take nearly seven minutes for another point to be scored, and it came when Doyle spun in a layup.
UTPA continued to hang around, answering every NU bucket, and when Eric Montalvo drained a three-pointer with 1:11 to play the score was 50-46 in the Wildcats' favor. Davor Duvancic and T.J. Parker hit free throws on consecutive possessions, and then the 'Cats put the game away when Parker scored a layup on a nice inbounds feed from Doyle, and then Seacat benefited from a nice tip play by Vukusic on a long rebound for another easy layup.
Parker finished with 10 points, and was the only NU player besides Doyle to reach double figures in scoring. UTPA was led by Matt Berry (11 points) and Montalvo (10); however, the Broncs hit just four three-pointers, more than five below their per-game average through the first 11 games this season.
Northwestern concludes this four-game homestand Wednesday night, hosting Indiana in the Big Ten Conference opener. Tipoff for that game is 6 p.m. Central.
