Northwestern's Shurna shreds Chicago State

If you thought John Shurna was hot Wednesday, you should've seen him on Monday.

Call it the difference between 180 degrees Fahrenheit and 180 Celsius.

The freshman forward from Glenbard West drilled four 3-pointers in the first three minutes of the second half to trigger the run that led to Northwestern's 75-63 non-conference win over Chicago State before 3,303 at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Shurna finished with 18 points - 2 more than his previous eight games put together - and gave a taste of his dominance during Monday's intrasquad scrimmage.

According to NU coach Bill Carmody, Shurna drained 9 consecutive 3-pointers to bring things to a halt early.

"It might have been more," said senior guard Craig Moore. "He did not miss that whole practice. It was great because the scrimmage got taken care of, we won and I didn't have to worry about it."

Chicago State (12-12) wasn't as easily cast aside.

Northwestern (13-7) led by just 1 with four minutes left in the first half before taking a 37-31 lead into the break.

"I was disappointed in our play in the first half," Carmody said. "We had 8 turnovers and sort of had empty possessions. You know, dropped balls and I thought we were trying to be cutie pies a little bit with trying to thread the needle instead of moving."

Shurna's second-half spree helped the Wildcats lead by as much as 22.

Moore (19 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists), Kevin Coble (15 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) and Jeremy Nash (7 steals) delivered along with Shurna for NU.

John Cantrell led Chicago State with 29 points as the Wildcats "held" David Holston, the nation's No. 3 scorer at 26.3 points per game, to 22 points on 19 shots.

Center Carl Montgomery added 12 points for the Cougars.

Holston, who came in with a national-best 111 3-pointers, made just 2 of 10 from long range.

"They made us take another step back ... to get our shots off," said Cougars coach Benjy Taylor.