Northwestern’s only losses on the season had come to ranked opponents. Its only wins were to non-Power Five teams.
Northwestern hoped that Duke might fall somewhere in between the extremes of that spectrum, but Thursday’s loss was about as bad as any Northwestern had experienced so far this year.
Fresh off a 34-point victory against Valparaiso on Sunday, Northwestern (4-3, 0-0 B1G) was optimistic it might take down a tough Duke (6-1, 0-0 ACC) team at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Instead, its first away game in almost a month was one the team will want back, as the Wildcats fell, 66-50.