Northwestern Drops 71-67 Overtime Heartbreaker at Michigan State

1/15/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Jan. 15, 2011

Box Score

Site: East Lansing, Mich. (Breslin Center)
Score: Michigan State 71, Northwestern 67 (OT)
Records: NU (11-5, 2-4 Big Ten), Michigan State (12-5, 4-1 Big Ten)
Next NU Event: Tuesday, Jan. 18 -- vs. Michigan (Welsh-Ryan Arena), 8 p.m.
Tickets: Available at NUsports.com or by calling 888-GO-PURPLE

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Northwestern was out-scored by Michigan State 11-7 in overtime as the Wildcats dropped a 71-67 heartbreaker Saturday afternoon at Breslin Center. Drew Crawford led NU with 16 points.

In a tightly contested matchup, Crawford's tough turn-around jumper with 46 seconds left in regulation gave NU a 57-54 advantage. Draymond Green cut the Wildcats' lead back to one with two from the line with 37.8 seconds to go. Michael Thompson answered with two of his own from the charity stripe with 36.9 seconds left to push the lead back to three.

NU got a miss on the other end, but Green came up with an offensive board and was fouled with 26.2 seconds to go and again made two to make it a one-point game. Luka Mirkovic was then sent to the line, but was only able to connect on one of two.

Green's game-tying attempt was off the mark, but he again grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled, making two to tie the game 60-60 with 10.9 seconds left. The Wildcats had a chance to win and Thompson pushed the ball up the court but turned it over to send the game to overtime.

A 3-pointer by Crawford and a baseline jumper by John Shurna gave Northwestern an early three-point lead in the extra session. The Wildcats had the ball with a chance to build on the their edge with under three minutes to go, but Green came up with a steal and a dunk and Keith Appling nailed a trey to put the hosts up by two.

Two free throws by Appling extended MSU's lead to four, but a bucket by Mirkovic made it a two-point game with 1:05 remaining.

NU got a stop on the defensive end, but Shurna was forced to take a desperation 3-point attempt at the end of the shot clock that was off the mark with 10.3 seconds left. Korie Lucious made one from the line to make it a 3-point game, but the Wildcats were unable to tie it as the Spartans won their second straight game in overtime.

Northwestern limited Michigan State to 38.5 percent shooting from the field in the contest, but the Spartans connected on 24 of 28 attempts from the free throw line. Thompson, who became NU's all-time leader in assists in the game, finished with 15 points and five assists. He bested the previous career mark of 452 assists held by Patrick Baldwin.

It took Northwestern over seven minutes to record its first field goal of the game, but when Davide Curletti scored on a lay-in at the 12:48 the Wildcats found themselves down just 6-3.

The Spartans' lead was 12-11 with seven minutes to go in the half when back-to-back 3-pointers by Thompson and Alex Marcotullio gave NU a 17-12 advantage. Following a Kalin Lucas free throw, two from the charity stripe by Curletti and a slashing lay-in by JerShon Cobb gave the Wildcats their biggest lead of the half, 21-13.

Northwestern would eventually take a 23-18 lead into the intermission as it limited Michigan State to 6-for-23 shooting from the field while forcing 10 turnovers over the opening 20 minutes of play.

The contest was back and forth throughout the second stanza as the game featured 13 ties and 14 lead changes.

The Wildcats return to action at 8 p.m. Tuesday when they host Michigan at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Tickets are available at NUsports.com or by calling 888-GO-PURPLE.

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