Nick Martinelly scored 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds and left his basket with 2.6 seconds, which helps to remove Northwestern men’s basketball from USC 77-75 on Tuesday in Evanston.
Martinelly divided a double team near Baseline and put it gently to give Wildcats (13–10, 4-8 Big Ten) to the lead second. Out of a timeout, Trojan put the ball into the hands of Clarke Slazchrt, who took some drills before the defender of Wildcats, excluding it out of the limit and the time ended.
Slazchrt replaced a four-point play on a straight 3-pointer and survived to tie a free throw with 29 seconds. Left with 1:54 and Trojan was trailing 72–67, Slazchrt also made a dishonesty on Blake Smith beyond the arc and made 1 out of 3 from the line.
Wildcats led 33-31 and increased Margin to 15 points, 59–44, Trozons fought their way back in the first 10 minutes of the second half but never took the lead.
Martinelly recorded a career-high 10 aggressive rebounds and Justin Mulins scored 14 points for Wildcats, who lost the Brox Barnahizer this week for a season-ending leg injury.
Slazchrt scored 24 points, 9 shoots for 11, Vesley Yets III scored 15 points and Chibujo Egbo was 14 for Trojan (13–9, 5-6).
The USC plays in number 7 perdue on Friday. Northwestern plays in Washington on Saturday.