NU can't make it 3 straight wins, losing to Michigan 68-59
John Beilein didn't care as much about his 500th career coaching win as his team's first win in four games.
"It was like being freed from bondage, are you kidding me?" Beilein said after Michigan beat Northwestern 68-59 on Saturday night in Ann Arbor, Mich. "That adversity will test you a little bit."
The Wolverines (14-6, 4-4 Big Ten) passed the test and passed the ball extremely well, recording 18 assists and turning the ball over just nine times against the Wildcats' matchup zone and 1-3-1 defenses.
DeShawn Sims was the biggest contributor with 15 points, including Michigan's first 11 on five layups and a free throw.
"DeShawn is our most important player," said Manny Harris, who had 8 points on 2-for-9 shooting but added 4 assists and 12 rebounds. "We had to get him going. Now, we need that consistency every game."
One game like that was one too many for the Northwestern, the league's hottest team in the past week.
"They isolated Sims and took advantage of that," Wildcats coach Bill Carmody said. "We got our hands on some balls, but they handled it well. We have to force more than 9 turnovers."
Northwestern (10-7, 2-5) had done just that in beating Minnesota last Sunday and stunning No. 7 Michigan State on Wednesday for the school's first back-to-back wins over ranked teams. Kevin Coble had 21 points for the Wildcats, 10 less than he did on the road against the Spartans.
"We saw Coble score a lot of points at Michigan State and had to keep that from happening again," Harris said. "Our whole focus was on defense today."
Michael Thompson added 16 points and Craig Moore 12, but Northwestern never threatened to make it 3 wins in a row.
"They knew what we were going to do," Carmody said. "We've been able to get teams to dribble into traps. Here, they managed to find someone else. Part of that was playing four guards. But they did a great job of grabbing long rebounds."
Penn State 63, Iowa 59: Jamelle Cornley scored 24 points and Talor Battle added 20 as host Penn State (16-5, 5-3) rallied from 14 down in the second half for a win over Iowa (12-8, 2-5).