Surging Northwestern snaps nine game losing streak against Iowa in convincing fashion
Wildcats lead almost from start to finish in rolling to 80-60 win at sold out Welsh-Ryan Arena
By Pat Harty
Northwestern’s storybook season added another chapter on Sunday as it ended a nine-game losing streak against Iowa with an 80-60 victory at a sold out and raucous Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Illinois.
The surging Wildcats (20-7, 11-5) extended their winning streak to five games, and they also won their 11th conference game for the first time since 1931 and stayed within just one game of Big Ten leader Purdue in the conference standings.
Iowa trailed for all but 45 seconds in the game, and by as many as 24 points in the second half, and only made 3-of-24 shots from 3-point range.
The frustration reached a boiling point when Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery picked up two technical fouls and was ejected from the game with 7 minutes, 26 seconds left in the second half, and with Iowa trailing, 61-46.
Fran McCaffery was upset because he felt that Northwestern had failed to advance the ball past halfcourt before the 10-second count, and he had to be restrained by his assistant coaches before leaving the court.
It appeared that Fran McCaffery had a reason to be upset because the replay showed that Northwestern had failed to beat the 10-second clock.
The Wildcats capped the play when reserve center Tydus Verhoeven, who was wide open under the basket, made a dunk.
Boo Buie then made four consecutive free throws to expand the lead to 65-46, and Iowa never threatened again.
The Northwestern students chanted “where’s your daddy” for the rest of the game in reference to Iowa players Connor McCaffery and Patrick MaCaffery, both of whom are Fran McCaffery’s sons.
Patrick McCaffery was also called for a technical foul with 4:52 remaining as the misery for Iowa continued against the Big Ten’s biggest surprise team.
Iowa fell to 17-10 overall and 9-7 in the Big Ten and now faces a daunting task in trying to earn a double bye in the Big Ten Tournament.
Iowa’s next game is Wednesday at Wisconsin followed by a home game against Michigan State on Saturday.
The Hawkeyes are currently tied for fourth in the conference standings.
Fran McCaffery had cooled down by the time he met with the media after Sunday’s loss.
He had high praise for Northwestern, and head coach Chris Collins.
“You can’t blame anybody, you just have to be better,” Fran McCaffery said. “And you have to learn and grow from it and be better, and credit your opponent on how well they played.
“They played really well, and they’ve been playing really well. They’re one of the best teams in our league. Give credit to Chris. I’ve said before he’s the coach of the year in our league without a doubt in my mind.
“So you know what? Go on to the next.”
As for the Wildcats, Chris Collins praised the atmosphere inside Welsh-Ryan Arena, which isn’t known for being a hostile environment.
“This atmosphere is awesome isn’t it man,” Collins said on the Big Ten Network. “This is everything we hoped. But you’ve got to have a good team an our guys really came out tonight and played really hard. We knew what we were up against with Iowa.”
Buie caused fits for Iowa throughout Sunday’s game as he scored 23 points, dished out eight assists and had just one turnover.
Buie said afterwards that his team has been motivated to prove the naysayers wrong.
Northwestern had suffered through five consecutive losing seasons before this season’s sudden turnaround.
“I just put in a lot of hard work, me and my team,” Buie said. “We’ve just been through so much and we had so much returning. We lost a lot of games last year in really close games down the stretch. So now that we’ve put in the work in the offseason just to overcome those little stretches and to be able to win these games and be more tough in thos crunch moements, I’m just super proud of me and the team’s growth.”
Iowa was trying to complete the season sweep after having defeated the Wildcats 86-70 on Jan. 31 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
But it just wasn’t meant to be as Iowa never found its range from behind the arc.
Northwestern led for all by 45 seconds in the first half, and by 11 points (37-26) at halftime.
Iowa cut the deficit to 11 at the break on a 3-point bank shot by point guard Ahron Ulis with two seconds remaining.
His three was one of just two that Iowa made in the first half on 17 attempts from behind the arc.
The Hawkeyes were lucky to only be down by 11 points at the break, considering how poorly they shot from three, and from the field overall, making just 9-of-29 attempts.
Fran McCaffery used nine players in the first half, but only five of them scored, led by Kris Murray with nine points.
The Northwestern students chanted “Keegan’s better” throughout the first half in reference to Kris Murray’s twin brother, former Hawkeye All-America forward Keegan Murray, who watched Sunday’s game from behind the Iowa bench.
Keegan Murray, who is in his rookie season with the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, was able to attend Sunday’s game with it being the NBA All-Star weekend.
Iowa has shown that it can score points in a hurry, and it leads the conference in scoring, so the halftime deficit hardly seemed insurmountable.
But this time, it was too much to overcome.