INDIANAPOLIS — Junior forward Nick Martinelli slept near a bucket of ice Tuesday night in the Northwestern team hotel, grabbing fistfuls to rub on himself when he felt overheated. Fifth-year guard Ty Berry slept on top of his covers but still tossed and turned.
It wasn’t anxious thoughts about facing Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament that kept the Wildcats up. It was the hotel’s broken air conditioning, which coach Chris Collins said resulted in room temperatures near 85 degrees.
Despite the restless night, the 13th-seeded Wildcats looked cool and collected throughout Wednesday afternoon’s 72-64 victory over No. 12 seed Minnesota at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. They advanced to play No. 5 seed Wisconsin in the second round at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
“Our guys are just a tough group of guys,” Collins said. “They’ve had a lot thrown at them. Even last night, they put us in a hotel, the rooms were a thousand degrees. There was no AC in the hotel, and our guys’ rooms were 85 degrees, and that’s where the league puts you. Every way they turn, they’re trying to get us, and our guys just are a resilient bunch.
“We’re used to being treated like that by this league.”
The storyline of this Northwestern season has been how the Wildcats have fought through adversity, most notably the season-ending injuries to team leaders Brooks Barnhizer and Jalen Leach. Collins’ comments hinted at challenges created by officiating, too, something that affected the Wildcats recently against UCLA when a late flagrant-foul call — and a no call — didn’t go their way. The coach didn’t elaborate further when asked specifically about his issues with the conference.
So chalk up the night of excessive heat to just another obstacle Northwestern had to overcome on the way to a 17-15 record and a spot in the conference tournament’s second round.
“Honestly, I’m not going to say I’m happy it happened, but we came out here and we showed them,” Martinelli said.
As usual, Martinelli played no small part in pushing Northwestern to another win. He scored 28 points, had seven rebounds and added three assists.
Martinelli entered the Big Ten Tournament as the conference’s leading scorer with 20.2 points per game, but he was selected to the All-Big Ten second team by both the media and coaches Tuesday.
The 6-foot-7 Glenbrook South graduate said being left off the first team didn’t provide fuel for his effort Wednesday — his third time in the last five games scoring 28 or more. He was more interested in showing fans that Northwestern is “a serious team.”
“I’m not motivated by (not being on the first team) at all,” he said. “What I’m motivated by is the guys that are with me every single day, that have faith in me, that actually get to see the work that’s put into it. I give all my time and emotion to those guys as opposed to people that obviously just see games and have their opinions.”
Collins said, while meaning no disrespect to the first-teamers, he would be happy to chat with anyone who believes there are five more impactful players for their team.
Martinelli scored 16 points in the first half on 8-for-11 shooting as Northwestern took a 32-29 halftime lead. The Gophers were well aware of the damage he could do after he scored 29 points in a 75-63 Northwestern win in Minneapolis on Feb. 25, but they still couldn’t slow him down.
Minnesota coach Ben Johnson said he has “a ton of respect for him” and called him “a made man” because of the way he has developed into the league’s scoring leader.
“Shots that are a really high degree of difficulty for most guys that aren’t going to make it, he just finds a way to get that little bit of an angle and get it on the rim, and his touch is really good,” Johnson said. “It’s such a soft shot. His size, if you play small, you’d better double because he’s getting downhill and he’s getting to the paint. If you play big, you’d better hope your bigs are able to move their feet because of his first step. And they just put him in really good positions.
“He does a good job to just almost will the ball to go in sometimes. He’s relentless with his pursuit. As an offensive rebounder, keeps second-chance points alive. … The kid’s a made man and one of the toughest covers I’ve probably had in coaching, period, at like any level, just because of all the different ways he can beat you.”
Northwestern used a 10-0 run early in the second half to pull to a double-digit lead, highlighted by Berry’s 3-pointer and Martinelli’s three-point play. The Wildcats led by as many as 15 points before Minnesota cut it to seven late due to some poor Northwestern free-throw shooting.
Berry finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists, and Jordan Clayton (11 points) and K.J. Windham (10) also scored in double digits.
Senior forward Dawson Garcia led Minnesota with 22 points.
“Coming out and staying aggressive on the defensive end (early in the second half) was really what helped us pull away,” Berry said. “We came out and just got multiple stops in a row. By doing that, we were able to run out and get into a good offense. Coach was calling great plays for us to get open and get easy shots. When we play defense like that, we’re a really tough team.”
Now Northwestern has to face Wisconsin, which won the teams’ only meeting this season 75-69 in Evanston on Feb. 1. The Badgers scored 50 points in the second half to pull away behind John Tonje (27 points) and Carter Gilmore (15).
“They have so many guys who can step up,” Collins said. “They have great players across the board, and they’re a really veteran team, super well-coached. … You’d better be locked in and ready to go or they’ll expose you on some things. We’d better get some rest.”
Collins said the team hotel, where only the Wildcats stayed Tuesday, had been having problems with the AC for days. Northwestern reported the issues to the hotel and the conference.
“You just hate it for the guys,” he said. “I have seniors that they’re playing for their lives, and they come down and said, ‘Coach, I have to have an ice bucket next to my bed. It’s steaming hot.’ Even this morning after we did our walk-through, our guys had to sit in the lobby or sit in our team room. They couldn’t even go to their rooms.
“The worst thing you want to do before a game is sit in a sauna for two hours. You guys know how it makes you feel. I’m frustrated about it. I don’t know what can be done. That’s just me being a coach and wanting the best for my guys.”
Iowa 77, Ohio State 70
Brock Harding scored 15 points, including a clutch 3-pointer to help 15th-seeded Iowa pull away from No. 10 seed Ohio State for a 77-70 victory in a Big Ten Tournament first-round game.
Bruce Thornton converted a three-point play and then added a pullup jumper following a Harding turnover to cut the Ohio State deficit to 72-70 with 45 seconds left. Harding answered with a 3-pointer, Thornton missed a 3 attempt on the other end and Payton Sandfort added two free throws to seal it for the Hawkeyes.
Iowa (17-15) will face seventh-seeded Illinois (20-11) in the second round at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
Payton Sandfort finished with 17 points for the Hawkeyes, who shot 55% (29 of 53). Josh Dix added 16 points and Pryce Sandfort had 10.
Thornton scored 24 points and had nine assists to lead Ohio State (17-15). Devin Royal chipped in with 17 points and Micah Parrish 16.
There were 13 lead changes and the score was tied 10 times. Iowa shot 10 of 24 from 3-point range while Ohio State was 5 of 22.
The teams were tied at 37 at the break, then Iowa opened the second half with a 17-9 run for its largest lead at 54-46 with about 14 minutes remaining. The Hawkeyes took the lead for good, 62-61, with 7:11 to play.
Associated Press contributed.
