Wildcats hot; Demons cold

These days, Northwestern doesn't need anyone's charity.

But when DePaul showed up Saturday without the services of ailing power forward Mac Koshwal, the Wildcats made sure to capitalize on their good fortune.

Junior forward Kevin Coble poured in a season-high 25 points to earn game MVP honors as Northwestern dominated from tap to finish for a 63-36 triumph before 4,053 at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

"I told Jerry (Wainwright) after the game that it's bad scheduling on somebody's part," Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said. "You're flying in from California (on Thursday afternoon) and you could see they're just heavy-legged.

"I don't want to take anything away from my team's effort and the way they performed, but that DePaul team's a lot better than they showed."

The Blue Demons (4-2) certainly hope so.

Northwestern's biggest victory margin in this intense nonconference rivalry coincided with DePaul's lowest point total since Jan. 29, 1949.

The Wildcats' blend of matchup zone and 1-3-1 trap held the Blue Demons to 24 percent shooting.

"Cold isn't the word," Wainwright said. "I told our guys in the locker room, other than 1 shot, I thought we had pretty good shots."

DePaul scored just 3 points in the final 8:35 of the first half as Northwestern (6-1) rolled out to a 31-15 halftime advantage.

Coble had 1 more point than the Demons at the break as he drilled 3-pointers, posted up for turnaround fadeaways and cut to the hoop for nifty reverse layups.

"Maybe before the (first media) timeout, I kind of knew it was going to be a big game," Coble said.

Without Koshwal's 12.4 points and 11.2 rebounds available in the post (he nursed his plantar fasciitis in sweats on the bench), sophomore Dar Tucker tried to hoist the Demons on his shoulders.

Tucker splashed long 3-pointers on DePaul's first two second-half possessions, but Coble hit a short bank and Craig Moore (14 points) drilled a 3-pointer to continue NU's penchant for swift answers.

Tucker (20 points) repeatedly forced the action on slashes into the lane, but he ran into at least two big Wildcats each time and his high-wire act ended with just 6 baskets in 20 attempts.

Freshmen Devin Hill and Jermaine Kelly, thrust into the starting lineup for the first time, combined to shoot 4 of 16 for just 9 points. Junior Will Walker, who came in averaging 11.6 points, failed to score.

"We had some guys play out of position," said Wainwright, who learned late Friday that Koshwal wouldn't be able to go. "They did the best they could."

Carmody tried to cushion the Demons' blow as well.

"I'm going to look at that tape tonight and I'm going to see we had open shots early and they went in," Carmody said. "And I bet you if I look at their shots, they weren't that much different.

"At the end of the day, usually there's a guy and he's open and he's got the ball and you've got to put it in."