Northwestern's John Shurna scored a game-high 32 points and tied a school record with nine made three-pointers and the Wildcats proved too much for Eastern Illinois on Sunday afternoon. Northwestern led by just five points at the half but scored the ball effectively all day and eventually pulled away for a pain-free 87-72 victory.
Shurna scored 18 of his 32 points in the first half, all of them coming on three-point shots. Drew Crawford picked up the pace in the second half after an 0-5 shooting effort in the opening 20 minutes and finished the game with 14 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Luka Mirkovic also had an outstanding all-around performance for the Wildcats, scoring 18 points to go with 10 rebounds and seven assists.
Eastern Illinois did a nice job of staying within reach during the game's first 36 minutes or so and the Panthers were as close as one point with five minutes to go in the opening half. But Northwestern managed to build a double-digit lead about six-and-a-half minutes into the second half and the team would not look back.\
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