For those fans who didn't fall asleep or turn the channel during the first half of Saturday night's ''defensive'' struggle, Northwestern and Illinois put on quite a show in the second half. The Wildcats' Scottie Lindsey woke up the Welsh-Ryan Arena crowd with a dunk and hit back-to-back three-pointers to turn a thee-point deficit into a 38-35 lead. Illinois fought back for a 46-42 advantage before Tre Demps finally woke up from his slumber with 7:59 remaining. After scoring one point in the first half (0-for-6 from the field), the senior guard nailed the first of four straight three-pointers to put Northwestern ahead 54-49 with 5:35 remaining. Northwestern would only score one more field goal the rest of the way, and it was a big one. As the Illini's Maverick Morgan was going up for a shot under the basket, Lindsey poked the ball away into Demps' hands. Demps then took off, beating three Illini defenders to the opposite end of the court for what proved to be the game-winning basket. With the Cats up 58-56, Illinois had possession with 12 seconds remaining. Bryant McIntosh managed to foul Malcolm Hill just before he hit a step-back jumper with 2.7 seconds left. On the inbounds, Hill tumbled to the court under tight pressure from Sanjay Lumpkin and the Wildcats escaped with the victory. Demps and Lindsey each had 18 pointers for Northwestern.
Northwestern coach Chris Collins
"Both teams battled like crazy to win. It wasn't the prettiest game to watch in the first half as defense dominated. The second half was a different game as both teams got into their offensive rhythm..''
Re: Scottie Lindsey
"Scottie was huge. It was such a big key to give us energy off the bench like that. He's a better defender than he has shown. This is what we want to see in him. We want him to keep pushing himself. No one likes to sit and not play (Lindsey did not play against Michigan State). As a coach, I thought he needed that jolt.
"If he continues to play like this, I have to have him on the floor. It's a game by game thing and I go with my gut feeling. He's a talented player and has a huge upside.''
Re: Tre Demps
"Our team has a bad habit of when it comes out of the gate and the ball isn't going down, the guys start to panic. It drives me nuts, but I try to be positive on the bench. Tre is a streaky guy; I'd like him to be hot like this for the next five weeks.''
Re: Defense on Malcolm Hill (7 points. nearly 12 points under his average)
"I'm proud of Sanjay. Malcolm Hill is a tough cover, one of the best in the league. I didn't want him going off for 25-30 points on us. We were able to make him give up the ball (8 assists). The highest number of free throws anyone on our team has shot in the Big Ten is 41 and he's shot 99, so we had to keep him off the line. He is super crafty and we had to make sure we didn't get caught leaning on him.''
Re: Rivalry with Illinois
"I want our guys to understand this is always a big game. The fans in this state deserve to have these two teams playing at their best. I wish we played twice. I wish our league would protect these rivalries.''
Northwestern coach Chris Collins
"Both teams battled like crazy to win. It wasn't the prettiest game to watch in the first half as defense dominated. The second half was a different game as both teams got into their offensive rhythm..''
Re: Scottie Lindsey
"Scottie was huge. It was such a big key to give us energy off the bench like that. He's a better defender than he has shown. This is what we want to see in him. We want him to keep pushing himself. No one likes to sit and not play (Lindsey did not play against Michigan State). As a coach, I thought he needed that jolt.
"If he continues to play like this, I have to have him on the floor. It's a game by game thing and I go with my gut feeling. He's a talented player and has a huge upside.''
Re: Tre Demps
"Our team has a bad habit of when it comes out of the gate and the ball isn't going down, the guys start to panic. It drives me nuts, but I try to be positive on the bench. Tre is a streaky guy; I'd like him to be hot like this for the next five weeks.''
Re: Defense on Malcolm Hill (7 points. nearly 12 points under his average)
"I'm proud of Sanjay. Malcolm Hill is a tough cover, one of the best in the league. I didn't want him going off for 25-30 points on us. We were able to make him give up the ball (8 assists). The highest number of free throws anyone on our team has shot in the Big Ten is 41 and he's shot 99, so we had to keep him off the line. He is super crafty and we had to make sure we didn't get caught leaning on him.''
Re: Rivalry with Illinois
"I want our guys to understand this is always a big game. The fans in this state deserve to have these two teams playing at their best. I wish we played twice. I wish our league would protect these rivalries.''
