Minnesota Pounds Cold-Shooting Northwestern
January 22, 2012

“We were never in a position for them to be nervous about our offense,” said Northwestern coach Bill Carmody after his team was beaten 75-52 by Minnesota.

The Wildcats started the game by missing their first 14 shots from the field, finally getting on the board with 12:13 left in the first half when center Davide Curletti was left alone under the basket and took a pass from Alex Marcotullio for a lay up. By this time, the Gophers had built an 11-0 lead, and Northwestern never got closer than 9 points the rest of the game.

Northwestern’s front-court duo of Drew Crawford and John Shurna were particularly cold, making only 10 of 31 field-goal attempts between them. They were even worse at the line, sinking just 3 of 12 free-throw attempts. However, Shurna shot enough to finish with 21 points, high among all players.

Marcotullio, who came off the bench, was one of the few Wildcats who did well, scoring 11 points to go with 4 rebounds and 4 assists.

Minnesota was balanced in its scoring with all five starters hitting double-figures. Freshman Joe Coleman led the team in points for the second game in a row, scoring 16 while adding 3 assists and 3 steals. Since moving into the starting lineup, Coleman has averaged more than 15.3 points per game.

In addition to his 11 points and 3 rebounds, Rodney Williams blocked 3 shots and had 4 steals. Julian Welch had 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists.

Minnesota won its first Big Ten game at home, upping its conference record to 3-4 while Northwestern dropped to 2-5.