Northwestern coach Bill Carmody was unhappy earlier this week with the level of passion in his team’s play.
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“We’re not competing like I thought we’d compete,” Carmody said. “That’s disappointing.”
Although he might have been disappointed Wednesday night with his team’s 48-44 loss to No. 24 Virginia, he couldn’t complain about the passion. Maybe it just took a nationally ranked opponent to wake up the Wildcats.
With Vedran Vukusic and Davor Duvancic accounting for most of the Northwestern’s second-half points, NU overcame a scoreless streak of 6 minutes 40 seconds to end the first half and trailed the Cavaliers 46-44 with one minute to go.
But a potential tying jump shot by Mohamed Hachad missed, and senior center Elton Brown made the second of two free throws for a 47-44 edge with 15 seconds left. T.J. Parker missed the front of a one-and-one and Virginia added a free throw to win in this edition of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
Northwestern fell behind Virginia 23-19 at the half, then fought the Cavaliers with the passion that seemed to be missing in their first four games.
Vukucic, who led Northwestern with 16 points, ignited the Wildcats with a three-point play and three-point basket midway through the second half that gave the Wildcats a brief lead and then a tie before Virginia, which defeated its first four opponents by no fewer than 17 points each, ran off seven unanswered points to go up 44-37.
The defeat dropped the Wildcats to 1-4, only the fourth time they have opened this poorly since 1955 when they began a 2-20 season by dropping their first six games. The Cavaliers (5-0) trailed 19-15 before Northwestern quit scoring in an all-too-familiar pattern this season–missed long-range jumpers.
Brown dominated the first half with 12 points and nine rebounds. Duvancic led Northwestern with six as the Wildcats dropped to 1-6 all time in Challenge games.
Northwestern bobbled its way through most of the game’s first eight minutes, with five turnovers to only two baskets. But Virginia went cold for a four-minute stretch that saw the Wildcats take their first lead at 13-8 with a 9-0 run.
NU went scoreless for the final 6:40 of a first half, in which neither team shot a free throw, at one point turning the ball over on four of five possessions while Virginia took control of virtually every area of the game.