Northwestern upsets No. 6 Michigan State 81-74
Having been down the same painful road in each of its last two games, Northwestern was perfectly positioned for yet another gut-punch loss Saturday against sixth-ranked Michigan State.
After trailing the Spartans 25-16 midway through the first half at Welsh-Ryan Arena, the Wildcats stormed back behind backup center Davide Curletti and led 39-37 at the break.
NU coach Bill Carmody was impressed with the rally, but he made sure his players remembered the recent past.
“We told them at halftime, ‘You can’t just be competing. You’ve got to take the game. You’ve got to be the aggressor. You’ve got to go after it a little harder,’” Carmody said.
“I really thought they did that. I’m just really happy for our guys and proud of them. We’ve had 2 agonizing losses.”
The agony ended Saturday as the Wildcats didn’t let up against Michigan State in the second half and emerged with an 81-74 victory.
Sensing the importance of the win — which could loom even larger when NCAA Tournament bids go out in March — most of the students in the crowd of 8,117 stormed the court to celebrate.
“It feels great,” said junior guard Drew Crawford, who prepped at Naperville Central. “Obviously, we were really upset about the last 2 losses we had, considering we should have won both of those games. We knew we were capable of winning them, but we weren’t able to make plays down the stretch.
“Today we were able to do that. We made the plays down the stretch, and that’s something we were really focusing on.”
Crawford had a bout with the stomach flu during the week and was questionable for the game. But after getting IV fluids Friday and Saturday morning, Crawford said he was good to go.
“I knew I was going to play the whole time,” Crawford said after scoring 20 points. “The training staff did a great job of helping me get better. It was just a matter of having enough energy.
“Once the game started, I see Davide out there working hard, I see all my teammates working hard, it kind of fuels you and gets you going.”
In addition to Crawford, Curletti erupted for 17 points — 1 shy of his career high — and John Shurna led the way with 22.
Shurna, who played at Glenbard West, passed Michael Thompson to rank third on NU’s all-time scoring list.
Shurna and Crawford have done the bulk of Northwestern’s scoring all season, but Curletti and Reggie Hearn (10 points) also stepped up as the Wildcats (12-5) improved to 2-3 in the Big Ten.
“One point here against Illinois and the overtime game against Michigan,” Carmody said. “We’re two possessions from being 3-1 and we’re 1-3, so that makes it rough.
“We’ve had a couple good practices. The contributions all around were great. They didn’t put their heads down. They just went out there and went after it, and got it.”
In the process, Northwestern ended Michigan State’s 15-game winning streak. The Spartans came in leading the Big Ten at 4-0 and were 15-2 overall after opening the season with losses to North Carolina and Duke.
“I had a couple concerns all week in our prep for these guys,” MSU coach Tom Izzo said. “The first one was, I thought they were a much better team. I thought they could have won the Michigan game and the Illinois game both.
“And if they were 13-3, I said everybody would be talking about this being an incredible matchup. When you lose a game or two, it matters in the standings, it matters to the media and fans and everybody else.
“To another coach, it doesn’t matter because it means you played extremely well for probably 39 minutes and they lost in the last minute. I knew they were a very good team.”