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 Forward Drew Crawford scored four of his game-high 19 points in
the second overtime, and he blocked Purdue's final shot as
Northwestern claimed a 63-60 Big Ten victory over the Boilermakers
on Tuesday at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
The victory was the second in a row for Northwestern (10-10, 3-4)
and the third in the Wildcats' past four games.
"It's not pretty, we know that, but as long as we can find a way to
get the job done, it doesn't matter," Collins said. "My main goal
this year was to make this team a scrappy, hard-nosed team that
fights."
Northwestern did indeed battle Tuesday.
"In past games we were showing efforts, we were fighting, but we
were having lapses where we'd give up a big run or let up," Crawford
said. "Now we're playing for 40 minutes — tonight it was 50 — and
we're finishing games and we're playing hard the entire game."
Guard Tre Demps shared top scoring honors with 19 and secured the
win by sinking two free throws with 10.8 seconds left in the second
OT. Crawford subsequently blocked guard Ronnie Johnson's 3-point try
at the buzzer.
Northwestern guard JerShon Cobb added 15 points.
Center A.J. Hammons paced Purdue (13-6, 3-3) with 17 points. Guard
Terone Johnson had 16 and Ronnie Johnson added 12 as the
Boilermakers saw a three-game winning streak end.
Purdue missed multiple opportunities, shooting just 27.6 percent (16
of 58) from the field for the game. The Boilermakers also made just
20 of 29 foul shots, 69 percent.
"We came up empty too many times," Boilermakers coach Matt Painter
said. "We just weren't very efficient. We needed to knock down some
more shots. We had some opportunities to put the game away by making
free throws and taking care of the basketball."
The Wildcats rallied from a seven-point deficit and forced a 46-46
tie at the end of regulation. Purdue's Terone Johnson missed on a
potential buzzer-beating layup.
Demps hit a 3-pointer to force a 51-51 tie with 1:36 left in the
first overtime but missed a potential game-winning jumper with two
seconds left, sending the game into a second extra session.
Four different Boilermakers hit 3-pointers over the first eight
minutes of the second half as Purdue opened a 37-31 lead. The
Wildcats closed the gap to 39-36 on Crawford's fast-break layup with
7:15 showing.
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Two Hammons free throws and a pair by Terone Johnson pushed
the lead back to 43-36 with 6:25 remaining.
Northwestern replied with two Crawford free throws and Cobb's
fast-break layup to make it a three-point game with 4:12 left.
Demps' 3-pointer with 3:11 left forced a 43-43 tie.
After the teams exchanged single free throws, Hammons made it
46-44 by sinking two foul shots with 46.5 seconds left. Cobb
then hit a jump shot for a 46-46 tie with 31 seconds left in
regulation.
While Hammons made several key shots, he had an overall tough
night. He sank just three of 10 shots from the floor and just 11
of 17 free throws.
"I feel this loss is on me," he said. "I didn't knock my free
throws down when I needed to. I had trouble scoring in the
paint. Lack of effort at the end of the game."
Successful shots were hard to come by in the opening half as
Purdue held a shaky 23-21 halftime lead.
The Boilermakers hit just nine of 26 first-half shots (34.6
percent). The Wildcats were 8-for-25 (32 percent).
It was worse at the start. Purdue was just three of 12 (25
percent) from the field while Northwestern was two of nine (22.2
percent) in the first seven minutes as the teams combined for 14
points.
NOTES: Northwestern F Drew Crawford matched two program
milestones, tying John Shurna with his 130th appearance and
matching Michael Thompson for most career starts with his 129th.
... Crawford entered the game leading the Wildcats with a
12.5-point average. ... Defense sparked Northwestern in its
recent surger. After giving up 93 points at Iowa on Jan. 9,
Northwestern entered Tuesday having allowed an average of 48
points and 30.1 percent shooting in its past three. ... Purdue
entered Tuesday having outrebounded eight straight foes by a
combined 63 rebounds. The Boilermakers and Wildcats each grabbed
33 boards Tuesday. ... Since the start of the 2007-08 season,
Purdue has the third-most road wins in the Big Ten (37)...
Purdue faced a challenging trip home after more than 14 inches
of snow fell on Northwest Indiana earlier in the day. Blowing
and drifting snow slowed traffic heading east from Chicago. ...
Purdue travels to No. 9 Wisconsin on Saturday. Northwestern
hosts No. 10 Iowa on Saturday.
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