Nick Martinelli scored a career-high 22 points on 10-of-12 shooting and Ryan Langborg scored 19 points to lift host Northwestern to a 91-59 victory against skidding Detroit Mercy on Sunday in Evanston, Ill.
Ty Berry scored 16 points and Brooks Barnhizer had 13 points with nine rebounds and seven assists for the Wildcats, who improved to 7-1 while shooting 55.7 percent.
Detroit Mercy (0-10) never led in the opener of a six-game road trip. The Titans’ losing streak stretched to 11 games dating to last season.
Marcus Tankersley posted a double-double of 23 points and 11 rebounds for the Titans, while Jayden Stone scored 13 points.
Northwestern led by as many as 34 points and seized control with 9-0 run to open the second half. The spurt included five straight points from Berry. Detroit Mercy missed six consecutive field-goal attempts at the start of the second half, including five from 3-point range.
The Titans didn’t register a point in the second half until Tankersley’s layup with 15:41 remaining.
Wildcats leading scorer Boo Buie had one point in the first half, missing each of his three attempts from the floor and finished with five points. Strong first-half efforts from Langborg (16 points) and Martinelli (11) helped offset the slow start from Buie as the Wildcats took a 43-33 lead into the break.
Northwestern clicked nonetheless, assisting on 13 of its 15 first-half field goals while committing just two turnovers. The Wildcats shot 50 percent, including 7 of 13 (53.8 percent) from long range.
Buie finished with a game-high eight assists.
Northwestern outscored Detroit Mercy 40-20 in the paint and finished with 29 assists. Langborg had five of the team’s 10 baskets from 3-point range.
Detroit Mercy fell to 0-3 against power-conference teams, while losing lost road games at Cincinnati and Mississippi last month.
The Wildcats evened the all-time series at one game apiece. Sunday marked the first meeting between the schools since 1956.
–Field Level Media