Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Minnesota
Northwestern Downs Minnesota On Senior Day 57-53
3/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 4, 2006
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EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) - Vedran Vukusic scored 20 points to lead Northwestern to a 57-53 victory over Minnesota on Saturday night in both teams' regular season finale.
The win clinched the No. 9 seed in next week's Big Ten Tournament for the Wildcats (14-14, 6-10) and a matchup against No. 8 Penn State. Minnesota (14-13, 5-11) drew the No. 10 seed and will face No. 7 Michigan.
Northwestern hit 15 of 16 free throws in the game, none bigger than the two Tim Doyle hit to close out the win.
Vukusic finished the season with a scoring average of 19.37 points to claim the Big Ten scoring title over Michigan State's Maurice Ager, who trailed him by .1 points entering Saturday. Ager had 15 in a loss to Illinois.
The Gophers scored the first basket but never led again. They did tie the game several times in an exciting second half. Trailing by 10, Minnesota freshman swingman Jamal Abu-Shamala scored 11 points during a 21-11 run that tied the game at 51-51 on two free throws from Vincent Grier. Abu-Shamala hit all 3 3-pointers in the spurt and two free throws.
Vukusic scored on a layup to give the Wildcats a 53-51 edge but Adam Boone tied it with two free throws. Then Minnesota's J'son Stamper got called for goaltending on a Doyle layup that was rolling off the rim with 1:20 left.
Vincent Grier shot an airball jumper with under a minute to go, but Vukusic missed the rim on a 3-point try and the Wildcats got called for a shot clock violation with 12 seconds left.
Dan Coleman then missed a 3-pointer and Doyle snagged the rebound, got fouled and hit two free throws with 5.5 seconds left to ice the win. He finished with 12 points and five rebounds.
Abu-Shamala led the Gophers with 15 points. Grier had 10 points and seven rebounds.
Minnesota had nine turnovers in the first half and trailed 31-24 on a last-second 3-pointer by Boone.
Northwestern guard Craig Moore hit 3-of-4 3-pointers in the first half and Vukusic scored 11 points and added 4 assists.
Mohamed Hachad scored 9 of his 11 points in the second half, hitting 5 of 6 free throws.
