25-0 spurt fuels Wildcats’ rally
Trailing by 15 points with less than 10 minutes to play, Northwestern appeared headed for a third consecutive loss. The Wildcats, however, weren’t ready to accept that fate.
Vic Law scored 25 points, A.J. Turner added a career-high 24 and NU used a 25-0 run to rally for a 75-68 victory Saturday against DePaul at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Turner was 8-for-13 from the field, including 6-for-10 on three-pointers, and Law was 9-for-9 from the free-throw line as the Wildcats (7-3) defeated the Blue Demons (5-2) for the fourth consecutive time.
‘‘Our guys just refused to say, ‘It’s not our day,’ ’’ NU coach Chris Collins said. ‘‘They kept fighting. DePaul was playing well. We just dug down really deep to get the game.’’
Femi Olujobi scored 22 points and Devin Gage 17 for DePaul, which led 57-42 with just less than 10 minutes left before the game changed dramatically.
‘‘For us, it was a little bit of an opportunity lost,’’ Blue Demons coach Dave Leitao said. ‘‘I thought we lost our way mentally and stopped doing the things that had gotten us to the point where we’re up by double figures.
‘‘For a large part of the game, we were really aggressive. Then we took our foot off the gas pedal emotionally, and a very good team took advantage of it.’’
The Wildcats held DePaul scoreless for 7:09 to turn the 15-point deficit into a 67-57 lead with about three minutes left.
‘‘I think it was our defense,’’ Turner said. ‘‘In the first half, they were scoring pretty easily. They were getting easy transition buckets. I think we started locking up, and that kind of led to us making the comeback.’’
The Blue Demons set the tone early defensively. They never let NU develop much rhythm offensively and did a nice job of surrounding center Dererk Pardon whenever he touched the ball in the paint.
Pardon, who entered the game averaging 14.4 points, was held to three points on 1-for-3 shooting in the first half. He finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.
The Wildcats were 10-for-29 from the field in the first half, including 4-for-17 on threepointers. They began the second half with six consecutive points to pull to 41-35, but DePaul quickly responded and stretched its advantage before falling apart late.