The 1st one is when Cartier Martin picked up his 2nd foul in the 1st half, the Cats had a small lead at the time and seemed to be weathering the Maric storm. I believe we only scored 5 points the rest of the half after Martin had to sit. Martin really came to play and seemed poise to have a night like he did two years ago when he carried the team. Unfortunately by the time he came back in the game NU's lead was at least 9 and he had to try to bring us back. When we started hitting some shots later in the game it was really too little too late.
The 2nd were the two possessions that bracketed half time. We had a poor possession our last time with the ball then even though we defended fairly well Perry hit a 3 at the buzzer to put them up 3. NU had the momentum and a little more breathing room. To be within one possession at the half after playing that poorly would've been huge for our guys. Then we come out in the 2-3 NU's possession and Henry hits a line drive 3 that couldn't have gotten 4 inches above the rim. Coaches like Huggins that already don't like zone aren't going to stay in it long when that happens. That also turned what was a one possession game into a 3 possession game very quickly and we had to play catch-up the rest of the way which we weren't really in position to do.
There were many others, but those two stood out to me.
On defense, not only could we not guard Maric we didn't defend the perimter very well either. Granted, NU didn't get looks, but we allowed them to swing the ball way too easily and couldn't funnel them to the baseline which is what we did so well in Manhattan. That allowed Maric to work the backside, then once the ball game around he could push our big guys down to the low block so he could work, or push smaller defenders trying to front all the way to the elbow which allowed the over the top pass. NU spread the floor more than they did last time so we didn't really have someone who could help quickly. Huggins seemed willing to let one guy beat us and he did.
Overall just a poor effort from our guys, especially on the defensive end. Unfortunately we couldn't adjust to how the game was called and even worse we let those guys (in stripes) get into our heads. You are going to have games that aren't called how you like, but you have to adjust and we were unable to do so. Made for a pretty poor trip to Lincoln and back, but I had a really good meal before so I suppose that counts for something.
