Nov. 14, 2012
The Last Meeting
| Mississippi Valley State | 67 |
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| Northwestern | 92 |
December 2, 2011
Evanston, Ill.
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern continues its season-opening four-game homestand on Thursday as it squares off against Mississippi Valley State at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
The Wildcats defeated Texas Southern 79-49 in their season-opener on Tuesday. Drew Crawford scored all of his game-high 20 points in the first half. Kale Abrahamson came off the bench to tally 15 second-half points. Northwestern used a 27-2 first-half run to take a 43-14 lead at the intermission.
NU has won its last 16 games in the month of November, the fourth-longest active streak in the nation behind only Syracuse (28), UNLV (20) and Ohio State (17).
Series History: Northwestern leads the all-time series with the Delta Devils 2-1, including 2-0 in Evanston.
SCOUTING MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE
• The Delta Devils (0-2) are coming off a 102-60 loss at Cincinnati Tuesday night. Davon Usher and Darryl Marshall led MVSU with 13 points apiece.
• MVSU posted an 18-12 record in 2011-12, including a 17-1 mark in Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) play. The Delta Devils advanced to the NCAA tournament and dropped a first-round matchup to Western Kentucky, 59-58.
• Chico Potts is in his first season as head coach at Mississippi Valley State after serving as an assistant coach for the last four years.
DAZZLING DEBUT
Northwestern freshman Kale Abrahamson got off to a good start in his collegiate debut Tuesday evening. The native of West Des Moines, Iowa, hit each of his first four field goal attempts--including three 3-pointers--while making all four of his free throw attempts in scoring 15 points. It was the highest-scoring debut by a Northwestern freshman since Michael Thompson scored 16 points against Stanford on Nov. 15, 2007.
DOING IT ON DEFENSE
The Wildcats were stingy on the defensive end against Texas Southern. Northwestern limited the Tigers to 6-of-29 shooting (20.7 percent) in the first half as the 'Cats led 43-14 at the break. The 14 points were the fewest by a Northwestern opponent in a half since UC Riverside scored 14 points in the first half on Dec. 1, 2008.
CRAWFORD CLIMBS SCORING LIST
Forward Drew Crawford currently ranks 15th in school history with 1,303 career points. He is seven points shy of Dale Kelly for 14th place and 12 points behind Joe Ruklick for 13th place. Last season, Crawford became the 17th Northwestern player to reach the 1,000 career point mark in his first three seasons of action. He is the second-leading returning scorer in the Big Ten in terms of scoring average behind only Penn State's Tim Frazier after posting a norm of 16.1 points per game in 2011-12.
UP NEXT...
Northwestern continues it season-opening four-game homestand at 1 p.m. Sunday when it hosts Fairleigh Dickinson.
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Behind a school-record-tying 20 3-pointers and 59 first-half points, Northwestern cruised to a 92-67 victory over Mississippi Valley State Friday night in Welsh-Ryan Arena.
