Northwestern's Michael Jenkins started the game scoring a 3 Pointer.
then a 3 pointer from Vince Scott, a layup from Davor Duvancic, and a Vedran Vukusic free throw put the Cats up 9-2 5 minutes into the game. Penn State went on a short run to get within 1 point at 9:59, but a layup from T.J. Parker opened it back up.
The Lions never got that close again.
 NU actually put the game away by starting the second half with a 3 pointer from Vukusic that kicked off an 8 minute, 21-4 run by the Wildcats. Penn State did close the gap a bit at the end of the game, but they never really threatened.
Back in January, Penn State used some lights out 3 point shooting from Danny Morrissey [4 of 6/16 pts] and Mike Walker [5 of 9/15 pts] along with Aaron Johnson's 16 rebounds, to keep the Cats out of the win column. Today Morrissey was 2 of 6 from the arc, Walker was 0-3 and Johnson had 7 rebounds.
On the other hand, NU's Vince Scott pumped in 3 [of 5] treys and
finished with 13 points, 4 steals and 6 rebounds. The sophomore center
was 4 of 8 from the floor and 2 of 2 from the foul line.
Mohamed Hachad returned to form - sinking 6 of 8 from the
field [1 for 1 from the arc], recording 6 rebounds, and a steal coming
off the bench. He finished with 13 points. Vedran Vukusic shook off a rough start from the arc to finish 2 of 6 from 3 point land. He had 12 points before fouling out.
T. J. Parker and Michael Jenkins both finished with 6 points and 4 rebounds each. Parker had 6 steals in the game, a block, and 3 assists. Tim Doyle recorded 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 rebounds.
After the game, center Vince Scott the ESPN MVP stepped up to talk with Dave and Dave...
he was asked about how important the win was to the Cats...
VS: We're 4 and 7 right now. We had to come out
and get this win because up there we lost a close one and we wanted to
come out and play pretty good.
What is it about Penn State that seems to bring out the best in you?
VS: I don't know, at half time Coach kind of
got on me for not having very much energy in the first half so I had to
come out an help my team in the 2nd half and if that means shooting
3-s, it means shooting threes.
In the offensive attack you get a lot of opportunities from the low
block, but when you come out you can pass or shoot, but you're a
threat...
VS: Yeah, the shot's open, I'm going to take it, he has confidence in me to take it so, I'm going to put it up.
How much weight work have you been doing? Looks like you've bulked up...
VS: I need a lot more down there, Aaron Johnson's a beast so hopefully I get a little more in the off season.
How much urgency did you guys feel about this game?
VS: There's 3 top teams, and then there's 5
that are right in the middle and we want to be up in fourth or fifth
place and this one tonight definitely helped us.
The injury to Mike Thompson has created some more minutes for you, how
important was it for you to take advantage of the extra playing time?
VS: Definitely, any time you have an opportunity you want to make the best of it so...
He's a big time player and we need his help as soon as possible but I come in and help my team any way, so...
You get up by 20 points and Penn State started to climb back into it,
do you think it might have been no acustomed to playing with that
big a lead?
VS: You just have to do what you can - he's
going to yell at us if we start playing bad defense sw we had to start
making our shots a little more.
You know who you play next?
VS: Yeah, the big one. The Big one up there.
what do you think?
VS: Its going to be tough, but we did it last year, maybe we can do it again...
Then it was time for Bill Carmody...
what about NU building a big lead, then letting Penn State get back in it?
BC: I don't know if we let them get back in, I
don't think we were really threatened, but I didn't like what I saw
there at that time, but again, when you get up by a big margin,
its a lot easier.
I think we went up 46-22, missed a layup, and Morrissey, #25, hit 2 threes and sort of got them going a little bit but I thought our defense was very good, you know,
Parker was all over the place, he got his hands on a lot of balls, Vince also
got his hands on a lot of balls. Vince managed to give it back about as
many times as he stole it [4 steals, 5 turnovers] but he did OK.
At 12:08, the Cats were up 46-22, but then didn't score for 8 or 9 minutes, what did you talk about in the time out?
BC: You know, I thought we got some nice -- Mohamed missed a layup, Timmy missed
a layup - I was just worried about the defense at that point. When you
have a lead like that - worry about the defense.
Don't shoot too quickly, they don't take the air out of the ball, keep
moving, keep - you still have to keep your aggression, and maybe we
just, for some reason, we got a little lax there.
You like your balance? 3 players in double figures, you sort of spread it around?
BC: Mohamed was good tonight, he was
good, it seemed he was getting some big rebounds when he was in there,
I don't know how many he got but it seemed like he was above the rim,
and he was going to the basket, we don't have many guys who get to the
rim, and he does.
That was good to see.
Davor was sick all night, he didn't sleep, still I thought he did OK, he gave us some minutes which I was glad to see.
Mike Thompson tried to give it a go during warmups and talked about maybe playing.
BC: If it had been an emergency, I would have
put him in, but he hasn't practiced in 2 1/2 weeks - he just started
jogging yesterday.
I just thought the only chance was if you needed a rebound on a foul
shot towards the end, something like that, but I don't want to
aggrivate it any more, a few more days and maybe we can get him
running, and moving a little bit.
You also did a good job on Aaron Johnson, it seemed like your guys knew where he was all the time.
BC: Well, the guy killed us - he had 21
rebounds the last game - He out rebounded the whole team, at least we
were even today in rebounds. It seemed like we [NU had 30 boards to
PSU's 27]
Well they missed more shots. If a team misses a lot of shots the
defensive team should get more rebounds and I thought we defended
pretty decently..
The win gets the Cats to 5-7 and above Iowa in the standings as the
jockeying for position in the Big 10 continues - your thoughts on
Illinois Wednesday...
BC: They're pretty good. Yeah..
And that's it for now - for the record, Illinois beat Iowa on the road - 75-65. Game time Wednesday is 7 PM, in Champaign.
Coach Bill
Carmody's Post Game comments [in italics] are taken from
the WGN Post
Game Show
with Dave Eanet
& Dave Kaplan
and may have
been edited for clarity
You
can send your comments or "back door" information
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