the Broncs from UTPA definitely came out shooting 3 pointers, led by their two bombers - Brian Burrell and Paul Stoll. Burrell lit up the backboards, shooting 6 of 9 from outside the arc and Stoll took 7 from downtown, but only made 2. The Broncs still hit 10 treys out of 23 attempts, that's still 43.5% outside the arc. NU Coach Bill Carmody on the play of the Broncs: I was very impressed with what they did. Their guys found the right guy all the time. They knew what they were trying to accomplish and it seemed they had some tough luck around the basket. [NU Sports] The Cats came out with another "new" lineup, one that looked like the one used at the start of the season, Tim Doyle and Kevin Coble were at their usual forward spot, and Craig Moore and Sterling Williams started at guard. The big change from this early season lineup was Ivan Tolic at center. The shuffle worked a bit, Moore was 2 of 5 from the floor including a 3 point shot, had 2 assists, and a rebound, but it really lit a scoring fire under Jason Okrzesik, who came off the bench making only one basket for 4 attempts, but made 9 of 9 foul shots. Bill Carmody: Okrzesik made all his foul shots. That's really key. [NU Sports] Bill Carmody on the lineup change: It seemed to help a little bit, which was good. [NU Sports] Four Cats shot in double figures - Kevin Coble led the Cats with 18, Tim Doyle added 17 more. Jason Okrzesik hit made 11, including those 9 free throws, and Jeff Ryan also came off the bench and put in 10. Coble also had 8 rebounds, Doyle added 4 assists, a block and 2 steals to the stat sheet. NU's defense came through too, the Cats recorded 6 steals and 3 blocks to go with 22 defensive rebounds. UTPA's Brian Burrell led all scorers with 24 on 6 of 9 from the arc. Next up is Purdue. Its an early tipoff in Evanston - 11:15 AM. Here's a link to NU Sports AP Photo Gallery
I was very impressed with what they did. Their guys found the right guy all the time. They knew what they were trying to accomplish and it seemed they had some tough luck around the basket. [NU Sports]
Okrzesik made all his foul shots. That's really key. [NU Sports]
It seemed to help a little bit, which was good. [NU Sports]
