Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Minnesota
Northwestern Outlasts Minnesota, 55-53
2/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 9, 2005
Box Score
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - With Wednesday's game at Minnesota on the line, Northwestern men's basketball coach Bill Carmody knew what he was looking for.
"We set up a play in case they were in man-to-man and a play in case they were in a zone," said the fifth-year Wildcat mentor. "In both cases, we wanted to put the ball in T.J. Parker's hands."
A wise decision. The junior guard -- who had won three previous games during his college career with buzzer-beaters -- added a fourth to the list, hitting a pull-up jump shot with 0.9 seconds left as Northwestern stormed back to beat a stunned Gopher squad 55-53 Wednesday night.
How improbable was this win? It certainly ranks up there with NU's win over Iowa a few weeks ago, when the 'Cats overcame a 13-point deficit in the final three minutes to win in overtime. In some ways, this one may have actually been more impressive -- after all, it came on the road, where Northwestern has not won all year.
Consider also that NU won this game despite the following facts:
*Only one player (Parker) scored in double figures.
*The 'Cats were outrebounded by the Gophers 39-18.
*NU took just seven foul shots, while Minnesota took 27 (the Gophers made 21 freebies, while the 'Cats made just four).
Minnesota (16-7, 6-4 Big Ten) seemed to finally be ridding itself of a pesky Wildcat squad when Vincent Grier picked up a loose ball and threw down a dunk to make the score 50-40 with 4:03 left. However, on that play Grier -- who to that point had been unstoppable, scoring 32 points in a variety of ways -- drew a technical foul for unsportsmanlike play when he slapped the backboard following the slam.
Grier would not score again. Meanwhile, the Wildcats (11-11, 4-6) snapped to life after that while Minnesota let a sure win slip away with sloppy ballhandling and three missed free throws in the final two minutes.
Dan Coleman went 1-for-2 at the line with 2:01 left, giving the Gophers a 52-47 lead. A three-pointer by Northwestern's leading scorer, Vedran Vukusic -- his first trey after missing five for the game -- brought Northwestern within two with 1:08 remaining, and Aaron Robinson missed one of his two foul shots at the other end to make it 53-50.
NU sophomore center Vince Scott calmly knocked down a three-pointer to tie the game with 44 seconds left, and Minnesota's Brent Lawson missed a trey from the corner with 17 seconds remaining to set up the Wildcats' final possession.
Twisting fast-break layups, pull-up jumpers in the lane, three-pointers to beat the shot clock -- Grier did it all once again for the Gophers through 36 minutes, whose NCAA tournament hopes took a hit with this loss.
The Wildcats were sharp at the start, using Carmody's Princeton-style offense, a couple of early turnovers by the Gophers, and some tough interior defense by Scott and Davor Duvancic to take an 11-2 lead in a little less than five minutes.
Duvancic's nifty backdoor flip to Vukusic led to an easy layup and a 13-7 edge with 13:02 remaining before halftime. Then Minnesota's defense kicked in, holding Northwestern to just a pair of free throws for nearly the remainder of the stanza.
The left-handed Grier, meanwhile, helped the Gophers build a 23-15 lead, one that was cut to six when Parker's layup with five seconds left ended the Wildcats' drought of nearly 13 minutes without a field goal.
Northwestern rebounded in the second half. After shooting a miserable 27 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, the Wildcats returned from the locker room to shoot 63 percent (15-of-24) including 50 percent (6-of-12) from three-point land.
At the other end, the Wildcats forced Minnesota into 23 turnovers -- the same number they forced from Purdue in Saturday's win at Welsh-Ryan Arena -- and came up with 17 steals, tied for the fourth-best effort in school history and second in the Carmody era (behind the school-record 22 against Penn State in last year's Big Ten Tournament).
NU is on the road again Saturday, taking on Iowa as it begins facing Big Ten teams for the second time. The Wildcats and Hawkeyes will tip off at 7 p.m. Central.
