Northwestern cruised over Brown in their final non-conference game, thanks to a balanced offensive attack and excellent three point shooting. Dave Sobolewski was the only NU player in double figures (he had 14 to go along with 8 assists), but five other guys had 8 or 9 points. NU hit 13 of their 24 three pointers and assisted on 21 of 23 field goals, and on defense they did a good job, holding Brown 15 of 49 field goal shooting. In fact the game wasn't as close as the final indicated, as Brown kept their starters in the whole game and ended the game on a 13-3 run against NU's reserves.
Bullet points of varying interest:
- Reggie Hearn sat out with a sprained ankle. Carmody said after the game he expects Hearn to be ready to practice next week.
- Alex Olah hit both of his threes, one of which was a 30 foot one-handed bank shot at the end of the shot clock. But after a great game in the post against Stanford, Olah looked terrible inside today, missing badly on a few hook shots.
- Brown's Sean McGonagill led all scorers with 20 points, as he transfigured his way through the NU defense.
- Tre Demps took it easy on the chucking today, taking just 5 shots in 23 minutes, but during walk-on time at the end he was demanding the ball and not letting the walk-ons shoot. Poor form.
- Speaking of the walk-ons, the BTN.com announcer told a remarkable story about James Montgomery III. Apparently, Montgomery used to be a practice player with the women's team, but took it a bit too seriously and was dunking on some of the girls, to the point where Joe McKeown had to tell him to calm down. This story was the highlight of walk-on time, either that or when someone pulled the fire alarm at Welsh-Ryan and the game had to be delayed.
- At halftime, Tim Doyle allegedly beat Jitim Young in a shooting contest. I can't help but think Jitim pulled a Lundy.
So that's it for the non-conference schedule. NU opens Big Ten play at home on January 3rd against Michigan.