Wildcats Roll Past Hawkeyes for 90-71 Victory

1/12/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Jan. 12, 2011

Box Score | Quotes

Site: Iowa City, Iowa (Carver-Hawkeye Arena)
Score: Northwestern 90, Iowa 71
Records: NU (11-4, 2-3 Big Ten), Iowa (7-9, 0-4)
Next NU Event: Saturday, Jan. 15 -- at Michigan State (East Lansing, Mich.), Noon CT

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Carver-Hawkeye Arena hasn't been kind to Northwestern over the years, but the Wildcats put forth a dominating performance Wednesday night, posting a 90-71 victory. Drew Crawford paced a balanced scoring effort with 19 points.

How historic was the win? Consider...

• The 19-point margin of victory is the largest ever for the Wildcats in Iowa City. The previous high was 11 points (34-23) on Feb. 21, 1914.
• Coupled with a 93-point performance against Indiana last Sunday, Northwestern has scored 90 or more points in consecutive Big Ten games for the first time since Jan. 3 and 10, 1970. Ironically, the Wildcats lost both of those games; 96-92 to Michigan and 98-93 at Michigan State.
• Northwestern has now scored at least 90 points in a game five times in the same season for the first time since the 1988-89 campaign.
• The win was just the Wildcats' third since the opening of Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Northwestern connected on 10 3-pointers in the first half (14 in the game) in rolling to the victory.

After Iowa scored the first four points of the game, Northwestern caught fire from beyond the arc. Each of the Wildcats' first seven field goals came from 3-point range. An old-school 3-point play by JerShon Cobb meant NU posted three points on each of its first eight scoring possessions.

All told, a 24-4 run gave the Wildcats a 24-8 lead and they wouldn't look back. After Matt Gatens hit a triple, Northwestern scored nine straight to make it 33-11 midway through the period.

The visitors' lead would balloon to as many as 27 points, 47-20, in the opening stanza before eventually taking a 48-27 advantage at the break.

Iowa came out the aggressors to start the second half, scoring 16 points in under five minutes to get within 15 at 58-43. However, the switch to the 1-3-1 defense helped Northwestern regain momentum as it scored six straight to push its cushion back up to 21 and the Hawkeyes never threatened again.

Michael Thompson, who became NU's all-time leader in minutes played, scored 17 points while moving into the top 10 in program history in scoring. John Shurna matched Thompson's five assists while scoring 16 points. Cobb also finished in double figures with 12 points.

The Wildcats finished with a 36-25 advantage on the boards, including grabbing 14 offensive rebounds.

Northwestern returns to action at noon Central time Saturday when it closes out its regular-season series with Michigan State in East Lansing.

••••••

Be the first to know what's going on with the 'Cats -- Follow @NU_Sports on Twitter, become a fan of Northwestern Athletics on Facebook! and subscribe to the NU Sports Express e-newsletter to receive the latest news, schedule updates and video and to interact with NU. For more information on following specific Northwestern teams online, visit our Social Media page!