Once again, Northwestern men’s basketball suffers a down-to-the-wire loss

Another big opportunity, another down-to-the-wire showdown and another narrow loss.

That’s become the theme of the 2025-26 Northwestern men’s basketball season of late. The Wildcats have now played five games that were decided by fewer than six points — all against Power Conference opponents, with four of those games being losses. Their 61-58 loss to Butler in Indianapolis’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse is the latest contest that will have NU fans lamenting better times.

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Of course, Northwestern was at a disadvantage from the beginning. Senior forward Nick Martinelli, who leads the Wildcats with 21.9 points per game, sat out against Butler because he suffered a concussion before Saturday’s contest. His absence was felt throughout the Northwestern offense, which averages 80.6 points per game but put up its lowest scoring output of the season by 12 points.

Jayden Reid was the only Northwestern player in double figures with 14 points. Arrinten Page, NU’s second-highest scorer, struggled without Martinelli beside him in the paint, as he could never get comfortable scoring besides a few dunks here and there. Collectively, the ‘Cats shot 35.9% from the field and 17.4% from beyond the arc, further corroborating their struggle to find a consistent three-point shooter this season.

Butler’s offense, shorthanded following the loss of its starting point guard Jalen Jackson and later key contributor Jamie Kaiser Jr. mid-game, wasn’t exactly something to write home about either. But it could do things that Northwestern couldn’t. The Bulldogs outrebounded the Wildcats 41 to 35, but the difference felt much starker throughout the game when most of Northwestern’s second-chance opportunities came towards the end. Butler’s Michael Ajayi put up 20 rebounds by himself, and there just wasn’t anyone on Northwestern’s team who could replicate that.

All this resulted in a game where Northwestern held the lead for fewer than three minutes and one where Butler had as…

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Publish date : 2025-12-21 16:32:00

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