The ?Cats (4-8, 0-1 Big Ten) came out of the gate strong, opening up a 14-4 lead on a three-pointer by freshman Winston Blake (Plano, Texas/Senior) five minutes into the game. After Iowa (7-5, 1-0 Big Ten) rallied to claim the lead, back-to-back treys by Blake and David Newman (Des Moines, Iowa/Hoover) gave Northwestern a 24-20 lead with 4:58 left. A runner by Ben Johnson (Minneapolis, Minn./De La Salle) in the waning seconds gave the Wildcats a 31-27 lead at intermission.
The Wildcats extended the lead after halftime and opened up their largest lead of the night, 41-27, with 18:20 to play. Johnson was the catalyst, scoring eight of Northwestern's 10 points in the burst.
Iowa used the free-throw line to crawl back into the game, eventually tying the it at 43-43 on a freebie by Ryan Luehrsman. The teams then traded baskets until Northwestern opened up a four-point advantage, 52-48, on a three-pointer from Jason Burke (Plano, Texas/East).
However, Northwestern would not score again, as potential game-tying three-pointers from Steve Lepore (North Olmsted, Ohio/St. Edward) and Blake rimmed out during the game's final 20 seconds.
Johnson led Northwestern with 17 points, one shy of his career high, while sophomore Collier Drayton (Lyons, N.Y./Lyons) scored a career-high nine points to go with his team-high seven rebounds.
Drayton also turned in a solid defensive effort, holding Dean Oliver ? Iowa?s leading scorer ? to just three points on 1-of-8 shooting.
Northwestern will be back in action Saturday afternoon at Welsh-Ryan Arena, hosting Pepperdine in a nonconference game at 1 p.m. Central.