Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: On Sunday, Northwestern led at halftime against a favored opponent and wound up losing.
Sure, it’s an overly simplistic way of breaking down the Wildcats’ 73-67 defeat at the hands of No. 10 Michigan State, but at its core, the game still had a storyline that NU fans are all too familiar with. Despite leading for 22 minutes and 23 seconds of the contest with their ranked foe, the ‘Cats, plagued by poor performances from their top scorers, a barrage of fouls and struggles at the free throw line, couldn’t hang on to what could’ve been a defining win that put wind behind the sails of their campaign to get back to March Madness for the second time in program history.