Northwestern Basketball Game Recap: Young, Nance, Audige give Wildcats depth back at home, improve to 7-2 after win over NJIT
Wildcats head coach Chris Collins doesn’t want to sound cliche but said this is the deepest his basketball team has been.
“With a lot of good veterans and our freshman getting the experience now to help in these big games is huge,” Collins said. “I’m just really happy with the win today. Anytime you come off the exam week ... it’s a tough week and we just came off an emotional game against Maryland … I was really pleased with our defense too. Just a good win overall.”
Junior center Ryan Young led the Wildcats to a 70-52 victory over the NJIT Highlanders Sunday afternoon. Young put up 13 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists. Senior forward Pete Nance led the team in the first half with 10 points and 7 rebounds.
.@peteln22 goes UPTOWN. #GoCats pic.twitter.com/a1EVrtLceu
— Northwestern Basketball (@NUMensBball) December 13, 2021
The Wildcats also benefited from the return of junior guard Chase Audige. Audige was back in the lineup for the second time after he missed the first seven games with a hip injury. His return gave the Wildcats much more depth in this matchup. Audige finished with 11 points and 6 rebounds.
However, this win didn’t hide that the flow for the Wildcats wasn’t as fluid coming back to home court as it was before the break. NJIT took some shots late in the shot clock, slowing down the pace of the game. The Highlanders also forced the Wildcats to play more half court basketball on Sunday; something the Wildcats can expect to see more of in conference play starting back up in the new year.
Northwestern assistant coach Brian James said he was pleased with the defense in the first half but wanted his players to adjust to NJIT’s unexpected tendencies.
“(Sophomore guard) Ty Berry had to guard (NJIT senior forward) Miles Coleman when he wasn’t prepped for that,” James said. “We needed our team to lock into their tendencies and get the ball in the paint a little more and not settle for some of those jump shots.”
Coleman kept the Highlander offense afloat finishing with 20 points and 8 rebounds.
The Wildcats return to Welsh-Ryan Arena on Saturday, December 18th for a cross-town matchup against the DePaul Blue Demons at 2 PM CT.
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