With Shurna out, Capocci steps up for Northwestern

With leading scorer John Shurna ruled out of Saturday’s 58-57 loss to No. 1 Ohio State due to a concussion suffered Wednesday at Minnesota, senior Mike Capocci received his second start since his freshman year.

The 6-foot-6, 195-pound Glenbard East graduate delivered his career high against a Division I opponent (11 points) to go with 4 rebounds and 1 blocked shot against top-flight center Jared Sullinger.

“With Shurna out, my coaches wanted me to step up and provide a little bit of rebounding and physical presence inside,” Capocci said. “Obviously Sullinger is much bigger than I am, so it was a big challenge to battle him down there.

“I think it was a good team effort that we could do what we could on him.”

Northwestern doesn’t play again until next Saturday’s national CBS game against Illinois, so it’s too soon to project whether Shurna will play.

“I guess it’s a day-to-day kind of thing,” said NU coach Bill Carmody. “They’ll examine him again in a couple days. They’re right on top of it.”

The last shot:

After Jared Sullinger’s go-ahead free throw with 3.5 seconds left, Northwestern and Ohio State combined to call three timeouts before the final play unfolded.

The Wildcats wanted Drew Crawford to catch the inbounds pass in the middle of the floor, then look for Michael Thompson and JerShon Cobb running up the wings.

The Buckeyes double-teamed Thompson, so Crawford had to charge up the floor and unleash a running 40-footer that went left of the hoop.

“I kind of caught it facing away from our basket, so it was tough to look up to those guys,” Crawford said. “I had to put up the best shot we could get.”

Did he feel good about the shot went it left his hand?

“I just said a prayer in the air,” Crawford said. “That’s about it.”

The 7-point spree:

Northwestern’s rally from a 13-point, second-half deficit received a big boost from a 7-point possession with just under eight minutes to go.

Alex Marcotullio swished a 3-pointer while Ohio State’s Dallas Lauderdale hit NU’s Davide Curletti in the head near the free-throw line.

Officials reviewed the monitor during a media timeout and determined Lauderdale’s foul was intentional, which gave Curletti 2 free throws and NU the ball.

Curletti made 1 shot, then JerShon Cobb drilled a 3-pointer with the shot clock running down to pull the Wildcats within 51-46 with 7:22 to go.

“I think I saw a first — a 7-point play in one possession,” said Buckeyes coach Thad Matta. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. I thought that was huge momentum for them.”