Tonight was Northwestern's first win in Iowa City since 2004, and they did it in a crushing way. The Wildcats lead at halftime 48-27, after dumping a load of three pointers. Northwestern was looking to get back on track and it seems as if they might have. Northwestern went on the road to Iowa, where teams like Ohio State and Illinois found themselves in close games.
Iowa started the game with a 4-0 run, after that, Northwestern went on a 24-4 run and never looked back. The scoring for Northwestern was pretty even. Drew Crawford lead with 19 points while Michael Thompson had 17. John Shurna added 16. Iowa's Bryce Cartwright has 25 points in the game while sidekick Matt Gatens had 20.
Northwestern won the rebounding battle by five, 30-25. The offensive boards were also won by the 'Cats, 10-7. Iowa forced 14 turnovers on the Wildcats, while Northwestern forced 15.
Iowa, until now, had looked as if they were improving. They had a major setback tonight. You need to continue to force close games at home. You are more than likely never going to win on the road in the Big Ten, with the state of your program. But your home court is all yours, defend it.
The Hawkeyes looked lost tonight at times. Northwestern reinvented themselves tonight vs Iowa. I hope Northwestern can get back to what we expected from them at the beginning of the season. If they didn't already blow their NCAA chances.. it would be great for them to get some wins. Another Big Ten team in the tournament would be a step in the right direction for the entire conference.