Northwestern's furious rally falls short vs. Michigan
Northwestern's momentum from Saturday's “signature win” over Illinois didn't last long.
Only until the Wildcats began their next game.
Michigan controlled things from the outset to earn a 75-66 Big Ten win Wednesday night at Crisler Arena.
“It was 35 minutes that they outplayed us,” said Northwestern coach Bill Carmody on WGN 720-AM.
Against a team it dominated last month at Welsh-Ryan Arena, Northwestern (14-9, 4-8) trailed by 15 at the half and the margin remained the same with five minutes to play.
NU reeled off 14 points in a row to pull within 1 with 2:24 left — Alex Marcotullio, Juice Thompson, Drew Crawford and JerShon Cobb nailing 3-pointers on consecutive trips down the floor — but the visitors never scored again.
Michigan freshman center Jordan Morgan poured in a career-high 27 points on 11-of-13 shooting as NU couldn't stop him near the hoop.
Point guard Darius Morris (11 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds) and other Wolverines took turns feeding the nimble 6-foot-8, 240-pound Morgan.
“We didn't handle just basic pick-and-roll,” Carmody said. “Pick-and-roll that we worked on for two days. We knew just exactly what we were going to do and guys just didn't execute.”
Northwestern didn't look any better at the offensive end — at least in the first half when the team shot 32 percent and fell behind 34-19.
Junior forward John Shurna, who scored 22 first-half points when NU whipped Michigan 74-60 last month, came off the bench and didn't try a shot until the 5:20 mark. He finished with 4 points and 5 shot attempts in 25 minutes as he sat during the final stretch.
“He's just not ready,” Carmody said. “He hasn't been practicing ... he still just isn't really ready to go. Until he is, somebody has to come through for us and pick up the slack.”
Crawford (16 points, 8 rebounds), Cobb (14 points) and Marcotullio (6 points, 6 assists, 3 steals) did their share.
Thompson, who turned 22 Wednesday, went scoreless in the first half but drilled the first 3 shots of the second half to offer the Wildcats some hope.
He finished with 17 points in his NU-record 118th career start, but committed 4 turnovers with just 2 assists.
Tim Hardaway Jr. added 17 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for Michigan (15-10, 5-7), which has won four of its last five.