For the first time in school history, the Northwestern men’s basketball team played a game at Pauley Pavilion. What came out of this game? The ghost of John Wooden haunts visitors.
The Wildcats were coming off their first Big Ten victory, fittingly just under 10 miles as the crow flies from this game. USC suffered four losses before Northwestern came to town, including three against ranked opponents. It was a big win for the Cats, especially since it wasn’t the expected result. While the opening spread was the same for the USC game and this game against UCLA, the latter played out differently.
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“We came out here with a team that was kind of beat up, a little bit demoralized with a record of 0-7,” Chris Collins said in the postgame press conference. “I think we got a little bit of enthusiasm back on the trip, which is good for us.”
The Bruins are a different beast. USC had lost home games earlier in the season. For UCLA, the closest team to dethroning them at home was a two-point Bruins victory. That win came against No. 4 Purdue. The Boilermakers had steamrolled teams for the most part this season, with the exception of a loss in Ames, Iowa. When head coach Matt Painter and Co. visited the Los Angeles area, they beat USC at the Galen Center. Three days later, they couldn’t defeat UCLA at the legendary Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins beat the Boilermakers 69-67 to everyone’s surprise, especially since they had just lost three of their last five games. However, what UCLA did have was home-field advantage.
I remember going to Pauley Pavilion while I was visiting the colleges. I was in Los Angeles visiting USC and UCLA, and ended up going to a Bruins basketball game before they were in the Big Ten, so it was a conference game against Colorado. Jaime Jaquez Jr., now averaging 15.4 points per game with the Miami Heat, was UCLA’s leading scorer in winning 68-54 thanks to a decisive 40-23 second half. What I remember most about attending a UCLA home basketball game was the noise of the crowd. Throughout the entire game, Bruins fans were locked in and cheering.
That crowd energy was the same in this contest, and it was crucial to Northwestern’s anemic second half.
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Jayden Reid took his first shot of the game: a deep three-pointer that he attempted as the shot clock expired. The shot came with 12:14 remaining in the first half. For the rest of the first half and the entire second half, the entire Bruins fandom was yelling “airball” when Reid had the ball. He finished the day with just one point and played just six minutes.
Nick Martinelli had 20 points – his 11th straight game with 20 or more. However, he only had 14 with less than two minutes remaining. Take away the six quick points Martinelli scored as the game neared its end, and it was ice cold in the second half. He had four points on four free throws while shooting 0 of 5 from the field, including 0 of 2 from three, from there being 47 seconds left in the first half until there was just 1:46 left in the entire game. Martinelli scoreless (aside from free throws) summed up what was an offensive struggle for Northwestern.
“I thought (UCLA) did a really good job on Martinelli.” » Collins said. “I know he finished with 22 or whatever, but it was hard-earned.”
Angelo Ciaravino made a layup with 13:36 left in the second half as UCLA led 55-42. The next time Northwestern scored a field goal, there was 2:54 left on the clock and the ‘Cats trailed 62-56 after Max Green’s third three-pointer of the night. The fact that UCLA only scored seven points in that span compared to Northwestern’s 11 is normally a positive thing. In this case, it was quite the opposite. The ‘Cats shot well from the free throw line, including making 14 of 16 in the second half. However, NU missed all six of their shots. While there were quite a few free throws in this window for the Wildcats, only six shots (all of which missed) is not a good sign, especially when the other team was struggling as much as the charity stripe.
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The game could have been closer at halftime as well, without Tyler Bilodeau and Trent Perry playing like a combination of all the UCLA stars of the past. Bilodeau went a perfect 6 of 6 from the field and 4 of 4 from three in the first half, scoring 16 points (he finished with 18). What made it worse was that all three of his point attempts in the first half were wide open.
“We didn’t do a great job in the duals against Bilodeau, and that’s kind of their bread and butter,” Collins said. “We probably didn’t have good coverage in the first half. We made a little adjustment and went to the change in the second half and kind of took away his pick and pops.”
Perry was also sensational, scoring 12 points in the first half on 5-of-7 shooting as he made two of his three foul shots. The rest of the Bruins squad in the first half? 13 points. Bilodeau and Perry had a combined 28 in the first half, while the two made a combined 11 of 13. No matter who you’re playing, allowing two players to score that much in a single half on those split shots will almost certainly put your team in a deficit to fight back from.
Northwestern is still looking for a reliable second and third scorer, consistently behind Martinelli. As this continues, the ‘Cats will continue to try different formations, switch rotations and play mix-and-match until something clicks. The starting lineup of freshmen Jake West, Tre Singleton and Tyler Kropp, alongside Green and Martinelli, played well and was the lineup with which NU earned its first Big Ten victory. For now, it will be a matter of wait and see since Penn State is the next opponent on the schedule.
