Who needs threes? Northwestern’s defense smothers BU to stay perfect in the young season

In its first two games, Northwestern won games with its shooting. On Monday night, when the shots wouldn’t fall, it found another way to win.

In 26 attempts, the Wildcats managed only six makes against Boston University, going 3-for-14 after halftime. But by the end of the night, it was barely on people’s minds. Northwestern won the game the hard way, forcing 19 turnovers and turning them into 21 points, to defeat the Terriers 72-55 at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

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Northwestern now moves to 3-0 on the young season and has yet to trail for a second.

“I thought our defense was the story tonight,” head coach Chris Collins said after the game. “It was good to have to win that way.”

The circumstances made it even harder. For the second straight game, Northwestern was without Jack Karasinski as he goes through concussion protocol, alongside first-year Jayden Hodge and redshirt junior Luke McEldon. Karasinski was the team’s best three-point shooter in the season opener against Binghamton, leading the team with 24 points while shooting 7-for-11 from deep.

Boston, meanwhile, came to Evanston 2-0, powered by a veteran roster. Collins said he’d warned his team before the game to not be surprised by the Terriers, saying they have “a great chance to win their league.” By his own account, he thought the looks were there, but simply wouldn’t fall.

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“I thought we were getting good ones; they just weren’t going down, and we had to really rely on our defense,” Collins said.

The brunt of that defensive success came in the first half, when BU committed 14 of its 19 turnovers, which Northwestern turned into 16 of its 39 points. That tenacious defense was the biggest reason behind the Wildcats 15-pont lead after 20 minutes, despite shooting 25% from deep.

Setting the tone early has been an emphasis for Collins this season, and that message landed when Jake West turned two steals into fast-break layups in the first three minutes.

“Hand activity” was something Collins kept circling back to….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/needs-threes-northwestern-defense-smothers-175757182.html

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Publish date : 2026-11-10 17:57:00

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