CHICAGO — Indiana men’s basketball’s NCAA Tournament hopes rested upon its performance in the Big Ten Tournament.
Although the Hoosiers had their eyes on making a run through the conference tournament inside the United Center in Chicago, they failed to even notch one victory. Indiana fell to Northwestern 74-61 on Wednesday, likely putting an end to any hopes of reaching March Madness in head coach Darian DeVries’ first season.
Fifth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson led the Hoosiers with 17 points. Wildcats senior forward Nick Martinelli scored a game-high 28 points, while freshman guard Jake West added 18.
DeVries deployed a two-big starting lineup, as senior forwards Sam Alexis and Reed Bailey each started the contest. Junior guard Nick Dorn, who started the past 12 games, moved to the bench.
Both squads traded buckets to begin the game before the Hoosiers went on a 6-0 run to take the early lead less than four minutes into the game. Then, both offenses again went back-and-forth across the next five minutes, as Indiana led 17-13.
The Cream and Crimson scored five in a row and eventually led by 10 points with nine minutes left in the half. But the Wildcats didn’t go away, outscoring the Hoosiers 16-7 in a six-minute span to take a one-point lead with under three minutes until halftime.
Indiana — which committed seven first-half turnovers — went into the locker room up 37-36, as Wilkerson scored 10 points in the half.
Northwestern came out of the break on a mission. West and Martinelli began the second half with a pair of buckets before the Wildcats went on an 8-0 run into the under-12 timeout and held a 53-44 advantage.
As the Hoosiers’ offense continued to misfire, Northwestern pushed its lead to 15 points with seven and a half minutes to play. Although the Cream and Crimson attempted to get back into the contest, the Wildcats cruised to a 13-point win after leading by as many as 18.
Indiana now awaits finality, which likely comes at 6 p.m. Sunday, when the 68-team NCAA Tournament field is revealed. The Hoosiers are presumably on the wrong side of the bubble to break its three-year March Madness drought and will finish their campaign with an 18-14 mark.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and Nathan Shriberg (@NShriberg and naashri@iu.edu) and columnist Kasey Watkins (@KaseyWatki8773 and kaslwatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball season.
