Northwestern basketball made two free throws in the final seconds to take down DePaul at home.
It was a good old-fashioned Chicago showdown, with Northwestern basketball traveling to Wintrust Arena to take on DePaul. The game was exciting from start to finish, with 17 lead changes. A late foul and two free throws by Nick Martinelli were the difference in this one, with the final score ending at 81-79.
No shortage of takeaways in this exciting nonconference game, let’s highlight the three below.
Takeaway #1: Martinelli, Page, and Reid continue to shine
Through the first three games of the season, the story was Nick Martinelli, small gap, Arrinten Page, slightly bigger gap, Jayden Reid, and everyone else. That was the case again Saturday, with Martinelli leading all scorers with 24 points on 8-11 shooting, Page adding 22 on 10-11, and Reid scoring 17 on 5-9 shooting.
Combined, the three of them scored 63 points. The rest of the team? 18. It’s working now, and these three have been amazing, but they’ll need some other guys to step up throughout the season if they want to be a tournament team. Tre Singleton showcased that a little tonight, scoring 10 points, with seven of those coming in the second half.
Takeaway #2: Free throw attempts by half the difference-maker
If you love fouls and free throws, you’ll be talking about this game for a long time. There were 48 total fouls, with none of them being intentional. In the first half, that was a big reason why DePaul was able to take the lead heading into the half. They shot 20 free throws, making 17, compared to 8 and 6 for Northwestern Basketball.
That flipped in the second half. Northwestern shot 16, making 10, while DePaul shot 7, making five. The result of the game literally came down to free throws, and luckily, they had Martinelli at the line, who sank them both. Fouling was definitely a concern for both teams, which will need to be addressed. You have to credit Northwestern, though, for seeing how the game was reffed in the first half, and using it to their advantage in the second to secure the win.
Takeaway #3: DePaul maximises its second chance opportunities
In the first half, Northwestern couldn’t miss. They shot 90% through the first nine minutes, and 67% from the field at half. What was keeping DePaul in this game was offensive rebounding and second-chance opportunities. DePaul has 16 offensive rebounds, to Northwestern’s 6, and had 20 second-chance points, compared to Northwestern’s seven.
DePaul has six players with multiple offensive boards, and it felt like anytime Northwestern would be in a position to go ahead a couple of possessions, an extra possession by DePaul kept them around. For DePaul, you definitely want to see more of that. It’s not like they had a clear height advantage; they just put in more from an effort standpoint on the glass. For Northwestern, definitely something to be concerned about, especially with some bigger opponents coming up.
Next for DePaul basketball: vs. Gardner Webb (Sat., Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. EST)
Next for Northwestern: vs. Virginia (Thur., Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. EST)