Northwestern’s 3-Point Shooting Dooms Indiana in 79-70 Road Loss

The Wildcats made 13-of-27 3-point attempts, led by Ty Berry with 23 points, to hand the Hoosiers their third loss in four games.

Jack Ankony | Jan 22, 2025

Northwestern's Ty Berry and Indiana's Mackenzie Mgbako on the floor for a loose ball at Welsh-Ryan Arena. / David Banks-Imagn Images

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Indiana Hoosiers

EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern didn’t make a field goal in the final nine minutes of the first half, but its best 3-point shooting game of the season was enough to overcome the drought and defeat the Hoosiers, 79-70.

Indiana couldn’t stop Ty Berry, who led Northwestern with 23 points on 7-for-10 3-point shooting. That rubbed off on the rest of the Wildcats, who made 6-of-17 3-pointers. Northwestern’s Brooks Barnhizer and Nick Martinelli did their usual work inside, scoring 21 and 18 points, respectively.

After a rough four-game stretch prior to Wednesday, Mackenzie Mgbako bounced back with a team-high 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting. Luke Goode followed up a career-high scoring game at Ohio State with 14 points against the Wildcats, and Oumar Ballo was solid inside with 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.

But the Hoosiers committed 17 turnovers, their second-most all season, and gave up their most 3-pointers all season. Leading scorer Malik Reneau was also rusty in his return from injury. With this loss, Indiana falls to 14-6 overall and 5-4 in Big Ten play, its third loss in the last four games.

Indiana led by six points at halftime, but gave up 54 points in the second half. Coach Mike Woodson has been searching for a complete 40-minute performance from his team, and he still hasn’t found it.

“I wish I knew. I’m still trying to figure it out,” Woodson said postgame. “I know we got Malik back, and we knew we weren’t going to play him very many minutes tonight. But we had a hell of a defensive half, and then we come out and give up 54 points and we pile on the turnovers. I mean, it was just a bad combination. We just didn’t play well in the second half.”

Indiana coach Mike Woodson yells to Trey Galloway (32) at Welsh-Ryan Arena. / David Banks-Imagn Images

Indiana has lost five straight games to Northwestern, tying the record set 110 years ago – from 1913 to 1915. The Hoosiers still have yet to beat the Wildcats under coach Mike Woodson, who is now 0-5 against them in his fourth season and has beaten every other Big Ten team Indiana has played.

“I can’t go back in the past,” Woodson said of his winless record against Northwestern. “The bottom line is we were playing well enough to win the game today, and we just didn’t answer the bell in the second half. We gotta figure that out going back home.”

Reneau played his first game since suffering a knee injury Jan. 2 against Rutgers, and he came off the bench for the first time since his freshman season. Woodson started Myles Rice, Anthony Leal, Luke Goode, Mackenzie Mgbako and Oumar Ballo. Reneau finished 0 for 6 from the field in 11 minutes.

“It’s gonna take a little while, man, [Reneau] hadn’t played in a number of games, and he only played about 10 minutes tonight and it showed,” Woodson said. “He’s not there yet. He hadn’t had a chance to really practice, so I knew I wasn’t going to play him very many minutes tonight. But that was just a part of it, we just gotta keep working. He’s gotta condition more, get a little more practice time under his belt to get back, but we had our chances tonight. Like I said, we didn’t defend in the second half like we did the first half. That’s something I gotta fix.”

Trey Galloway was first off the bench for the Hoosiers, and he was playing with tape wrapped around his right hand and wrist. Bryson Tucker didn’t dress for Friday’s game at Ohio State due to a pinky injury. He was in uniform Wednesday but did not play. Gabe Cupps remained out indefinitely.

If fans came to Welsh-Ryan Arena looking for a potent display of offense, the first half showed they were in the wrong place. The Hoosiers and Wildcats combined for nine turnovers by the under-12 timeout, and they had 15 by halftime. For most of the half, ill-advised passes and sloppy dribbling led to these turnovers rather than stingy defense.

Northwestern led by as many as 10 points in the first half, thanks to a 3-point barrage from Berry. The senior guard hit a trio of 3-pointers in just over three minutes to give Northwestern a 23-13 lead with 9:35 left in the half. But just when shots started to fall, the Wildcats went cold.

Northwestern scored just two points over the final nine-plus minutes of the first half, and both came from free throws. The Wildcats missed their final 12 field goal attempts of the first half.

Indiana’s offense wasn’t much better for a long stretch, as it went 2 for 15 from the field over a nearly 10-minute stretch. Reneau looked to be shaking off some injury rust and missed all four of his shots in the first half, close looks he typically makes.

Malik Reneau (listed questionable) is in uniform for warmups at Northwestern, wearing a knee brace. #iubb pic.twitter.com/frg41dpbuZ
— Jack Ankony (@ankony_jack) January 22, 2025

But the Hoosiers took advantage of Northwestern’s offensive woes and closed the first half on an 18-2 run to take a 31-25 lead into halftime. Ballo, Leal, Reneau and Galloway each met Northwestern’s physicality, drew fouls and knocked down their free throws, accounting for seven points at the line during that run.

Galloway’s floater gave the Hoosiers their first lead of the game, 27-25 with 1:30 left, and Mgbako drove hard for a layup just before the buzzer. Both teams shot below 36% from the field in the first half, but Indiana still managed to take a six-point lead after the first 20 minutes.

After a brutal 0-for-12 shooting stretch to close the half, the Wildcats found their stroke to open the second half. Northwestern regained a 39-37 lead after a Martinelli 3-pointer, capping off a 6-for-8 shooting run in the first four-plus minutes. That signaled Indiana’s turn for a shooting drought, going nearly five minutes without a made field goal.

Berry caught fire again in the second half, sinking three more 3-pointers in a five-minute stretch. His gave Northwestern a 48-42 lead with 11:52 to play. Indiana had been giving him too much space early on, but Berry heated up so much that he was making highly contested 3-pointers in the second half.

The Hoosiers and Wildcats traded runs down the stretch. Goode responded to Berry’s shooting with a pair of 3-pointers, and Ballo’s dunk capped off a 10-0 run as Indiana took a 52-49 lead. But the Wildcats punched right back with a 13-0 run of its own.

“We went to the bench and subbed a couple guys, and we just didn’t answer the bell coming back out of that timeout and they did,” Woodson said. “We just – the same things they ran in the second half, we didn’t guard it well in the second half, and they made us pay for it, especially from the 3-point line. They made 3-point shots all over the floor, and we never responded.”

The player who started the run? You guessed it, Berry. He put Northwestern back on top with his seventh 3-pointer, which proved to be contagious for the Wildcats. Jalen Leach drilled a trio of 3-pointers in less than two minutes, and Barnhizer followed suit with a 3-pointer that gave Northwestern a 68-56 lead with 4:13 to play, a 19-4 run in just under five minutes.

“Our communication from a defensive standpoint was lost the second half,” Woodson said. “Our switches, we weren’t together on switches, where we were connected the first half and they made us pay for it. We can’t go on routes like that where we don’t do what got us the lead. I mean, I thought we played a beautiful first half based on how we played in holding this team to 25 points because they can score the ball, and they showed that the second half.”

Indiana's Mackenzie Mgbako (21) drives against Northwestern's Matthew Nicholson (34) at Welsh-Ryan Arena. / David Banks-Imagn Images

Indiana went on a 12-2 run with two 3-pointers from Mgbako and one from Goode in the final minutes. But Indiana had already fallen into too big of a hole, making its late run too little too late. Hoosier fans outnumbered Wildcats supporters at Welsh-Ryan Arena, and they chanted “Fire Woodson” near the end of Indiana’s loss.

Next up, the Hoosiers return to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall for a noon ET tipoff Sunday against Maryland.

“You can never get worried, there’s too many games left,” Woodson said. “We play a good game on the road and beat Ohio State, and then come here and got an opportunity to win a game and we let it get away the second half. You gotta give them credit. They played their butts off in the second half, and we didn’t.”

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