Olah, Falzon Lead 'Cats to Home Win over SIUE

12/5/2015 4:08:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Wildcats shoot 66.7 percent from the field in second half

By: Jasper Scherer

EVANSTON, Ill. — Alex Olah scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds, Aaron Falzon added 17 points and Northwestern outrebounded SIU Edwardsville 45-31 on the way to an 81-56 win on Saturday afternoon at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

The 'Cats nearly doubled up SIUE on points in the paint with a 40-22 advantage. Joey van Zegeren recorded five blocks in 16 minutes of playing time, combining with Sanjay Lumpkin and Olah to play dominant interior defense.

Northwestern converted on 18 of its 27 second-half field goals (66.7 percent), improving to 7-1 this season with the win.

"I feel we're getting better," said head coach Chris Collins. "I'm getting a feel for rotation, how to use the guys. I think we're a very dangerous offensive team. Our efficiency offensively is very good; we can shoot the ball, and when our big guys are playing well, I think we have all the components to be very hard to guard."

The 'Cats scored each of their first 10 points in the paint, using Olah and van Zegeren's size advantages to gain open looks under the basket. On the other end of the floor, Northwestern forced SIUE to miss six of its first eight shots. The 'Cats held a 10-5 lead at the under-16 timeout.

The Cougars quickly closed the gap to two points, but Olah slammed home an emphatic dunk for his fifth and sixth points less than seven minutes into the game. Though the 'Cats missed their first six 3-point attempts, they led 18-13 with eight minutes left in the half. Eleven of those points came from Olah, who also added two first-half blocks.

"The main takeaway from this game was just getting Alex going again," Collins said. "He had a couple games where his defense was good, but we hadn't established him as a scorer. Today, that was a big challenge because SIUE's two better guys were there big guys. So we challenged [Alex] and Joey, and I thought those guys really took control of that position."

On defense, Lumpkin anchored an impressive performance by the 'Cats. The redshirt junior grabbed four defensive rebounds in the first half – six total – and helped hold SIU Edwardsville to six points in the paint. The Cougars connected on five of their first 17 shots and finished the half at 36 percent shooting.

The Wildcats got their first 3-pointer to fall with 4:25 left in the half when Falzon knocked down a tough shot on the wing while falling away. The play would have been rather unremarkable had Falzon not lost his shoe on the court a couple plays earlier.

"I was running back on defense after a kid kicked my shoe off," Falzon recalled. "As we were running down the court, my shoe was just laying there, and Joey threw it off to the side. Somehow I was open, and when I'm open, coach tells me to shoot."

On Northwestern's following possession, McIntosh weaved through the Cougar defense, making a tough layup look easy to put the 'Cats up 31-18.

SIUE closed the gap to seven points off a 3-pointer by junior guard Eslik Burak, but Falzon responded with another three of his own, this time from the corner, and the 'Cats entered halftime with a 35-26 lead.

Falzon picked up right where he left off coming out of the break, knocking down two wide-open 3-pointers from the top of the arc, with the first coming off a feed from Demps. Two possessions later, Demps – again playing the facilitator role – found Olah on a well-executed pick-and-roll. Falzon stayed hot with his fifth straight 3-pointer, putting him at a then-game-high 17 points and extending Northwestern's lead to 46-30.

Demps, whose seventh assist of the game set up an easy bucket for van Zegeren around the 14:30 mark, added a score himself on a pretty reverse layup, this time courtesy of McIntosh. Nathan Taphorn, subbed in for Falzon, connected on a 3-pointer, his first basket of the game, with 12:20 left. Van Zegeren swatted away guard C.J. Carr's shot on the next play, keeping the momentum with Northwestern.

The two sides went back-and-forth from there, with Olah scoring seven straight points for the Wildcats. McIntosh added a three-point play with 4:40 left, giving him 11 points to go with his eight assists, and Jordan Ash found Gavin Skelly one play later for a decisive dunk. The slam stretched Northwestern's lead to 73-48 as the 'Cats began to break away, finishing with an 81-56 win.

"I just want to win the next game in front of us, and I want to play good basketball," Collins said. "I want to feel like we're getting better, I want there to be a good chemistry, I just want there to be a good feel about our team, and I do feel that."

Northwestern vs. SIUE Notes – Dec. 5, 2015
• Northwestern improves to 5-0 all-time against SIUE.
• The Wildcats improve to 7-1 on the season. It is the first time since the 2011-12 season that they have recorded seven or more wins through their first eight games.
• Alex Olah's game-high 21 points are also a season high for the senior center.
• Joey van Zegeren recorded a season-high five blocked shots in the game. The total is two shy of his career high that he posted on two occasions. It is the fifth time in van Zegeren's career that he has tallied five or more blocks in a game
• Aaron Falzon knocked down a career-best five 3-point field goals in the contest. Falzon connected on five of his first six shots from 3-point range and finished with 17 points.
• Tre Demps matched a career high with 7 assists. It is the third time in his career that he has reached the mark. Bryant McIntosh came into the game ranked fourth in the Big Ten with an average of 5.9 assists per game and finished the contest with a game-high 8 assists.
• Northwestern's shot 66.7 percent (18-27) from the field in the second half which is team's best mark in a half this season. It's the Wildcats' best mark in a half since shooting 69.6 percent (16-23) in the first half at Maryland Jan. 25, 2015.