The Northwestern Wildcats had never, before last night, been this far in a postseason tournament. A win against the Washington State Cougars would have put them in the Final Four of the NIT and sent them to Madison Square Garden in New York.↵↵
It was not to be. Some questionable calls near the end of regulation denied the Wildcats a chance to win, but two missed WSU free throws sent the game into OT, where Alex Marcotullio missed a couple of desperation threes in the final seconds and NU lost 69-66.
↵↵Still, it was one of the more successful seasons in Northwestern basketball history. Here's more from our SB Nation Northwestern blog Sippin' on Purple:
↵↵Northwestern rallied from 14 down in the first half, tied it with 4 seconds left, got lucky when Abe Lodwick missed two free throws with 0.2 seconds left, then missed open three after open three in the overtime. The game ended when Alex Marcotullio missed two threes in the final five seconds. NU fought hard for the entire 45 minutes, but they didn't have quite enough.↵
↵As disappointing as it feels now, let's give some credit to this team for making something of the season in the NIT, and let's thank Juice Thompson for all he's done for this program. What a career he's had.