Posts Tagged ‘Butler Bulldogs’
Men’s Hoops: Butler bullies NU at the end
Northwestern held a nine-point lead a halftime and looked like it would survive a second half rally on the road at Butler on Wednesday night.
The Wildcats clung tight to their lead, but Matt Howard had other ideas.
With about two minutes to play, Howard stole the ball at the top of the key from a Jeremy Nash pass and took it the length of the court for a layup that gave Butler the lead. It was his offensive rebound and putback from a missed 3-pointer by Gordon Hayward that gave the Bulldogs a three-point lead with less than a minute to play.
Junior guard Craig Moore, who tied a Big Ten single game record with nine 3-pointers Saturday against Brown, could not hit the tying mark in response. Butler hit free throws down the stretch and completed the comeback with a 57-53 win.
The Cats (3-1) took a nine-point lead thanks to a 60-plus percent shooting performance and a defense that was allowing the Bulldogs (4-0) to hit just 36 percent of their shots. Butler stayed in the game by making 12 of its 16 free throw attempts.
Like NU’s game at Brown on Saturday, the second half told a much different story than the first half. Only this time, the team could not hold on to the lead.
The Cats finished the game shooting 47.7 percent. The Bulldogs ended at 40 percent. NU ended up outrebounding Butler 28-22, but gave up nine offensive rebounds.
Sophomore guard Michael Thompson scored 12 points to lead NU. Moore and sophomore forward Ivan Peljusic added 11 points. Junior forward Kevin Coble only scored three points on one-of-four shooting.
Howard led Butler with 17 points and six rebounds. Hayward added 13 points and guard Willie Veasley had 10.
The Bulldogs shot 17 of 24 from the line, while the Cats only got to the line six times — making three of their attempts.
NU will play UC-Riverside on Monday at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
