BROOKLYN—Northwestern came into the Legends Classic off a last-second loss to Butler.It didn’t seem to bother the Wildcats as they beat No. 22 Texas 77-58 on Monday night.
”I’m really proud of my guys tonight. We had a very tough loss Wednesday in Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. ”Teams can go two separate ways after a loss like that. You can go on a little bit of a tailspin or you can rally together and come out fighting. There was never a doubt in my mind that our guys were going to keep fighting. We came in confident, yet very respectful of Texas. We knew it was going to take a great effort to beat a team like that. I thought a lot of guys played well.”
Bryant McIntosh had 20 points and five assists in the convincing win that propelled the Wildcats (3-1) into a championship showdown against Notre Dame, which beat Colorado 89-81, on Tuesday night at Barclays Center.McIntosh turned the ball over that led to Butler’s buzzer-beater.
”I thought right after the Butler game, I knew we wouldn’t go into a tailspin just because we didn’t feel sorry for ourselves,” McIntosh said. ”We were upset that we lost a game that we thought we could win. That’s a difference with this team than on the other teams I’ve been on since being here. If we lost a close game, we felt sorry for ourselves where this team we’re hungry. We think we’re good and I thought tonight we played exceptionally well.”
Northwestern opened the game with an 11-0 run and closed the first half on a 9-0 spurt to take a 34-26 lead.The Wildcats opened the second half on a 10-1 run to go up by 17 points and the Longhorns (3-1) were never closer than 14 points the rest of the way.Scottie Lindsey had 16 points and Dererk Pardon had 10 points and 11 rebounds for Northwestern which took advantage of an out-of-synch Texas offense for the easy win.
”We came in to win,” Collins said. ”We have the utmost respect for Texas, just like we did at Butler the other night. I just think there’s a mindset with these guys. I think we believe we’re good. I believe we can play with these teams, not only play with them but beat them.”
Tavin Mack scored 18 points for the Longhorns, who finished with 14 turnovers and just seven assists. Texas didn’t help itself at the free throw line going 13 for 27.
”I thought Northwestern did a great job of starting the game with aggressiveness and got off to that big lead,” Texas coach Shaka Smart said. ”Our guys responded really well and battled back and took the lead but obviously from there, Northwestern was just a much better team tonight.”
Northwestern, which shot 48.2 percent (27 for 56), led by as many as 20 points as nine of the 10 players who saw time scored.Texas, which came into the game averaging 82 points per game, shot 37.3 percent (19 for 51) and were outrebounded 40-31.
”I was a little bit concerned this morning because sometimes you can feel when guys get in the bright lights, you can tell they’re playing a little bit away from what really goes into it,” Smart said. ”It’s natural. I think we were a step off with a lot of things we know how to do.”
The Longhorns allowed opponents to shoot 21.8 percent from 3-point range in their first three games. Northwestern was 10 of 24 (41.7 percent) from beyond the arc. … Six Texas players were averaging double figures entering the game and only Mack reached that against the Wildcats.Vic Law came into the game shooting 76.8 percent (11 of 14) from 3-point range including eight in a row at one stretch. He went 1 for 2 Monday. … Law was the Wildcats’ leading scorer at 20.3 points per game. He had just nine against Texas.McIntosh celebrated his birthday Sunday by heading to the famed Rucker Park with his godfather to shoot baskets.Northwestern leads the all-time series 2-1. The last time the teams met was in 1974, a 63-59 Texas victory. The first meeting was a 73-71 Northwestern victory in 1965….Northwestern will play Notre Dame in the championship game of the Legends Classic.