Indiana Basketball traveled to Evanston on Wednesday evening to face off with Northwestern in a game that both teams needed for resumé purposes.
Indiana had the lead at the half, but allowed 54-second half points, dropping its fifth-straight to Northwestern 79-70.
With the loss, Indiana drops to14-6 and 5-4 in Big Ten play.
Here's how it happened.
INDIANA SHAKES OFF SLOW START TO TAKE HALFTIME LEAD
Similar to Friday night in Columbus, Indiana got off to a slow start on the road on Wednesday evening.
Following a back-and-forth open to the game, Northwestern went on an 8-0 run to take a commanding 10-point advantage midway through the game's opening frame.
Despite shooting 35.7 percent from the field, Hoosiers battled back, ending the half on an 18-2 scoring run.
Oumar Ballo led the visitors in scoring with seven, but Anthony Leal was everywhere for Indiana, racking up a pair of steals with a quartet of assists.
Because of the all-around effort from the Bloomington native, Indiana found itself leading Northwestern by six at the break.
NORTHWESTERN COMES OUT FIRING IN SECOND HALF
Despite going into the locker room behind, Northwestern began the second half with something to prove, shooting north of 60 percent from the field in the opening 10 minutes.
The Wildcats swiftly erased the six-point deficit, and led by as many as seven points mere minutes into the half.
Northwestern was led by Ty Berry, who scored a career-high 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting, including a lights-out six threes.
Lafayette native Brooks Barnhizer added 21 points, while Nick Martinelli added 18 points.
INDIANA FALLS APART LATE
After Oumar Ballo's alley-oop dunk, Indiana led Northwestern 52-49 with 9:25 left on the clock.
The Wildcats stormed back, going on a 21-4 run in six minutes to take a 14-point lead.
Jalen Leach's three triples on consecutive possessions was part of Northwestern's three-point barrage in the second half. The Wildcats hit 13 threes, nine coming in the game's final 20 minutes.
Indiana fought back late and cut the Northwestern lead to four with less than a minute but ran out of time as Northwestern earned its fifth-straight victory over Mike Woodson and Indiana.
FINAL STATS
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