Wildcats Open Final Week of Regular Season at Home With Iowa Tuesday
March 3, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -
Northwestern opens the final week of the regular season at home Tuesday as it takes on Iowa at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. Big Ten Network will televise the game live with Mel Proctor and Jim Jackson on the call.
No. 16 Purdue rode the strength of a run early in the second half to top Northwestern 68-43 Saturday at Mackey Arena. Freshman Ivan Peljusic scored all of his team-high 13 points in the first half for the Wildcats. Trailing 8-3 early, the Wildcats used a 13-3 run to take their largest lead of the game at 16-11. NU limited Purdue to 30.4 percent (7-23) shooting from the field in the first half, but the Wildcats were still down by one at 24-23 at the break. An uncharacteristic nine turnovers prevented the 'Cats from having a lead. Michael Thompson, who was limited to seven minutes of play in the first half due to foul trouble, opened the second half by hitting a trey to put Northwestern up by two. However, the Boilermakers answered with an 18-4 run to pull ahead 42-30. The closest the Wildcats got the rest of the way was nine points. Robbie Hummel paced Purdue with 15 points. Northwestern shot 39.5 percent (17-43) for the game compared to 45.5 percent (20-44) for the Boilermakers. Peljusic Steps Up Forward Ivan Peljusic has gotten the start in each of Northwestern's last five games and has come on strong. In each of the last two contests, a win at Michigan last Tuesday and a loss at No. 26 Purdue on Saturday, Peljusic scored 13 points. His entire point total came in the first half against the Big Ten-leading Boilermakers. Prior to the 26 combined points in his last two appearances, Peljusic had scored a total of 32 points in his first 12 games played. Gimme Some Moore Junior guard Craig Moore has been a threat from 3-point range all season. Four times this season, he has knocked down six or more triples in a game. His eight makes against Michigan Feb. 26 rank as a tie for the third-most ever in a Big Ten game, trailing only the nine made by Michigan State's Shawn Respert and Indiana's Roderick Wilmont. Moore is tops in the Big Ten with an average of 3.33 made 3-pointers per game this season and ranks second on NU's career list with 203 3-point makes and third with 555 attempts. His 90 made 3-pointers this season have surpassed the previous school record of 86 set by Sean Wink in 1997-98, while his 223 attempts bested Winston Blake's mark of 221 set in 2000-01. Scouting Iowa • Iowa (12-18, 5-12) has lost three in a row, falling at Michigan State and Penn State and at home to Illinois. • The Hawkeyes shot just 35.9 percent in Saturday's loss to Illinois. Tony Freeman paced Iowa with 21 points, including hitting 13 of 15 free throw attempts. •Freeman leads Iowa with an average of 14.1 points per game, while Justin Johnson is second at 11.9 per contest. Johnson ranks second to Northwestern's Craig Moore with a norm of 2.9 made 3-pointers per contest. • Iowa ranks second in the league behind only Wisconsin by allowing its opponents only 58.0 points per game on average. However, the Hawkeyes are last in scoring offense at 56.0 per game. Up Next... Northwestern closes out its regular season Saturday as it hosts Wisconsin at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Tip-off is 2 p.m. Central time with Big Ten Network providing television coverage.
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