Not perfect, but another win for Northwestern

Bill Carmody didn't want to blame Northwestern's 12-day layoff for Monday's peculiar happenings at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

But how else to explain things like Big Ten scoring leader John Shurna missing 6 free throws — twice as many as any other game in his career — and tiny Long Island outrebounding the Wildcats and Carmody forgetting his suit jacket for the first half?

“Like Steve Martin used to say,” Carmody said before dropping his voice an octave. “‘I forgot.'”

Despite their sartorial brain cramps, sluggish rebounding and subpar free-throw shooting, the Wildcats rolled to an 81-65 victory before perhaps 1,500 fans at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Northwestern (6-0) remained one of 14 Division I teams with a spotless record behind yeoman efforts from its top two players.

Juice Thompson stacked up 16 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds and 3 steals while Shurna turned playmaker with 26 points, 7 rebounds and a career-high 7 assists.

Carmody tried to rest Shurna for the final nine minutes, but Long Island (6-4) chopped a 25-point deficit to 10 with 3:39 to go.

Shurna returned long enough to throw down his third dunk of the half and split 4 more free throws. The junior forward finished 4 of 10 from the line as the Wildcats went 13 of 25 overall.

“Games can be won and lost at the free-throw line,” Shurna said. “So I think I'll be back in the gym tomorrow shooting a lot of free throws.”

On the other hand, Shurna drilled 10 of 11 attempts from the field as he swished both 3-point tries.

In addition to leading the Big Ten with 23.0 points per game, the Glenbard West product is hitting 64 percent from the field, 65 percent on 3-pointers and 67 percent at the line.

“I don't know how you guard a kid like that,” said Long Island coach Jim Ferry, who tried using 6-foot-1 stopper David Hicks to slow Shurna on the perimeter.

“His size, he's got good quickness, he can shoot. I guess you foul him ... he probably would have had 36 if we would have guarded him with a forward.”

Long Island gutted out the game despite not flying into O'Hare until 2 p.m.

“We ate a meal, threw our jerseys on and said, ‘Let's go play some basketball,'” Ferry said. “So I give my kids some credit for coming in fighting.”

And not forgetting to wear their jerseys.