Ryan Young scored 13 points and Chase Audige added 11 as Northwestern rolled to a 70-52 victory over visiting New Jersey Institute of Technology in a non-conference game Sunday in Evanston, Ill.
Pete Nance added 10 points and seven rebounds for the Wildcats, who are 7-2 after finishing just 9-15 last season.
On Sunday, Boo Buie added five points and seven assists, while Ty Berry had nine points for Northwestern, which led by as many as 24 points in the second half.
Northwestern shot 43.5 percent (27-for-62) from the field for the game, including 25 percent (5-for-20) from 3-point range. The Wildcats also forced 16 turnovers they converted into 17 points, in addition to outscoring the Highlanders 38-10 in the paint and 29-10 in points off the bench.
NJIT (5-5) was led by Miles Coleman’s 20 points and eight rebounds, with Matt Faw adding 13 points.
The Highlanders shot 29.1 percent (16-for-55) from the field but were just 7-for-27 (25.9 percent) in the second half.
The Wildcats put the game away by opening the first half on a 14-3 run to take a 49-26 lead on Young’s layup with 12:09 left in the game. The Highlanders wouldn’t pull closer than 15 points the rest of the game.
Trailing 5-2, Northwestern went on an 11-0 run to take a 13-5 lead on Ryan Greer’s jumper with 13:17 left in the first half. The Wildcats, behind Nance, led by as many as 13 in the first half en route to a 35-23 lead at intermission.
The Highlanders, who shot 32.1 percent from the field (9-for-28) in the first half, also struggled taking care of the ball. NJIT committed nine turnovers that the Wildcats converted into 10 points in the opening 20 minutes.
–Field Level Media
