Northwestern upsets Indiana once again to advance to third round
CHICAGO – Northwestern outscored 10th-seeded Indiana by 14 points in the second half to fuel a runaway 74-61 win on Wednesday night, their second straight in the 2026 Big Ten Tournament.
Star forward Nick Martinelli scored 28 points, just like in the regular season matchup, and got crucial support from freshman Jake West‘s 18 points, 14 of them coming in the first half.
It was a stunningly similar story to the last game when Northwestern won at Indiana, with the Wildcats rallying in the second half while the Hoosiers went ice cold. This time, instead of ceding a massive halftime lead on the way to a narrow Northwestern win, the Hoosiers ceded a narrow halftime lead to a massive Northwestern win.
Northwestern, playing its second game in as many nights while Indiana had a bye in Round 1, looked like the more energetic team in the second half.
“Playing Indiana University in the United Center on national TV?” head coach Chris Collins asked. “If you can’t get juiced up, you should turn your jersey in.”
Though it was Indiana who was fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives, Northwestern took it to them in the second half. The two teams seesawed early in the second frame until Nick Dorn committed a flagrant foul on West on a fast break layup with NU up 47-44. That catalyzed the Cats, and they rattled off a 27-17 run the rest of the way.
“I just stayed composed,” said West, who hit both flagrant free throws for the first points of the run. “I knew that team really wanted to fight, that was a big game for them, obviously trying to go to the [NCAA] Tournament. But we have goals, as well.”
Here are our takeaways from an authoritative second-round win in the Big Ten Tournament, the Wildcats’ seventh straight over Indiana dating to 2022, and fifth in their least seven games this season.
Martinelli cements status as a Hoosier killer
When Northwestern drew Indiana in the tournament seeding, with the Wildcats’ preseason goals long gone and the Hoosiers battling for an NCAA berth, it seemed like their six-game winning in the series was destined to be snapped.
Instead, Martinelli put an exclamation on his dominance over the Hoosiers and extended the streak to seven.
“I think at one point we were 2-13 in the league. … A lot of teams would be looking forward to Cancun or Fort Lauderdale, whatever it may be,” Collins said. “But these guys weren’t like that. There’s no quit in this group.”
Martinelli’s run is reminiscent of the way that Boo Buie used to go off against Michigan State, though Martinelli insisted he treats Indiana like any other team.
“There’s something special about playing every single game with [my] guys,” Martinelli said. “These could be my last couple of games here, and I just wanted to give it everything I got every time I step on the floor.”
Martinelli was flat-out exceptional, just like he was the last time these two teams squared off in Bloomington in late February. He scored 19 of his 28 points in the second half, rising to meet the moment, while Indiana’s leading scorer, Lamar Wilkerson, faded as the game wore on.
Wilkerson had 10 of his 17 points in the first half, and the Big Ten’s second leading scorer once again lost to the league’s scoring champ.
Martinelli can claim the Hoosiers are just another team, but closing out his career with a 7-0 record against such a storied program probably feels pretty good.
Bright future for Northwestern’s next generation
West leads the pack here with 18 points in 36 minutes, showcasing blazing speed and brilliant finishing around the rim. He has now scored 10+ points in three of his last five games, increasingly showing how high his ceiling can be.
“For this guy right here to my right to come of age as a freshman in this venue against a team the quality of Indiana, just so proud of him,” Collins said, gesturing to West sitting on his right. “And [I’m proud of] Tre [Singleton] and Angelo [Ciaravino], who’s a sophomore, and Tyler Kropp. There’s a lot of young guys out there competing.”
Singleton and Kropp don’t jump off the stat sheet. Singleton had eight points and a team-high five rebounds and Kropp had three points. But they have been exceptional replacements as true freshmen for center Arrinten Page who missed his third straight game with an illness, though he attended this game in sweats.
The frontcourt freshmen have provided key defensive versatility and a solid presences on the glass, even if that’s eating up space for Martinelli or a guard to swoop in and snag the ball. The Wildcats had 27 rebounds, but no single player had more than five.
Ciaravino had four points, including a thunderous slam out of an after-timeout play design. There will be a monstrous, Martinelli-sized hole in next season’s roster, but this quartet is showing in the home stretch of this season and the opening run of this tournament that there is something to the next wave of Wildcats.
Looking ahead to Purdue
This marked the first time since 2017 that Northwestern has won two Big Ten Tournament games, but Collins wasn’t exactly thrilled and hopeful about his team’s next foe, 7th-seeded Purdue.
“I can’t promise what the result’s going to be, but I know our guys are going to give everything over these next 24 hours to get ready for Purdue tomorrow,” he said.
Part of his consternation is that the Boilermakers have the best frontcourt by far of their three tournament foes. Both Penn State and Indiana have smaller and less talented forward/center combinations that match up better with Northwestern being able to put Martinelli at power forward and Singleton or Kropp at center in a small-ball lineup.
The Wildcats had Page, the only player on roster above 6-foot-9 that isn’t redshirting, and still got outrebounded by Purdue, 29-15, the last time they played.
“I want to enjoy this win right now, and I just had visions of [Trey] Kaufman-Renn and [Oscar] Cluff down low… .” Collins said. “We know what’s ahead of us. We know how good this team is.”
Reading between the lines, it looks like Collins and his team’s run may reach its end tomorrow. But the writing seemed to be on the wall before this Indiana game, too.
One thing we’ve learned in this stretch of five wins in seven games: you can’t count out the Cats.
