Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Indiana
Wildcats Host Hoosiers Sunday at Soldout Welsh-Ryan
1/28/2017 4:43:00 PM | Men's Basketball
| NORTHWESTERN BASKETBALL: GAME DAY INFORMATION | |||||
| DATE | OPPONENT | TIME | LOCATION | BROADCAST | LIVE STATS |
| Sun., Jan. 26 | Indiana | 5:30 p.m. | Welsh-Ryan Arena | BTN and BTN2Go | SIDEARM |
| Radio: 720 WGN (Dave Eanet and Joey Meyer); Sirius 93, XM 195 TV: BTN (Wayne Randazzo and Jon Crispin) Social: Twitter (@NUMensBball and @NU_SportsLIVE) | Instagram (@numensbball) | Facebook Game Notes: Northwestern | Indiana |
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EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern takes aim at its sixth straight Big Ten win Sunday when it hosts Indiana at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Tip time is set for 5:30 p.m. The contest is sold out.
At 17-4, Northwestern is off to its best 21-game start to a season in school history.
The Wildcats are coming off a 73-61 home win over Nebraska on Thursday. Dererk Pardon scored 19 points to go along with a career-high 22 rebounds while Vic Law contributed a team-high 20 points. Northwestern led 57-53 with five minutes left when it went on a 16-1 run to pull away.
Pardon's 22 rebounds represented the first 20-rebound game by a Northwestern player since Evan Eschmeyer had 21 against Penn State on Jan. 6, 1999. The 22 boards are the most by an NU player since Jim Pitts had 22 against Ohio State on Jan. 22, 1966.
Northwestern's five-game Big Ten winning streak is its first since the 1965-66 season. NU is seeking its first six-game winning streak in league play since the 1932-33 season when the eventual Big Ten champions matched a school record with seven straight wins. A win on Sunday would give the Wildcats their best nine-game start to the conference season since the 1937-38 team opened 7-2.
NU is receiving 21 points in this week's Coaches Poll (T-26th) and 28 votes in the Associated Press poll (28th).
The Wildcats sport a 1.59 ratio (365 assists, 230 turnovers) this season ranking them first in the Big Ten and third in the nation. NU's average of only 11.0 turnovers per game is the 18th-best mark nationally while its 17.4 assists per game rank 14th. The 'Cats rank second in the Big Ten and sixth nationally with an average of 6.3 blocked shots per game and are limiting their opponents to 38.6 percent shooting from the field this season, the 13th-best mark in the nation.
Northwestern has an 8-6 record against Indiana going back to the 2008-09 season. The Wildcats have won four of the last six matchups between the teams at Welsh-Ryan Arena, including a 72-65 victory in the most recent meeting in Evanston Feb. 25, 2015.
Scouting Indiana
The Hoosiers (14-7, 4-4 B1G) come into Sunday's game on the heels of a 90-60 loss at Michigan on Thursday. Robert Johnson paced Indiana with 14 points while Thomas Bryant added 13. James Blackmon, Jr. leads the team with an average of 17.6 points per game to rank fourth in the Big Ten. His 63 3-point field goals lead the conference. Indiana is first in the league with an average of 83.0 points per contest and a .499 team field goal percentage.
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