As the regular season winds down and the Big Ten Tournament approaches, each conference game takes on much more significance. For a Northwestern team that hasn’t participated in the Big Ten’s postseason since 2010, that means a heightened sense of urgency.
With their tight 8-7 win over Purdue on Sunday afternoon in West Lafayette, the Wildcats (19-27, 8-10 Big Ten) took the weekend series from the Boilermakers and put themselves in striking distance of that all-importance No. 8 seed.
It was a successful Sunday on two fronts for the Wildcats, who picked a game up on Purdue (26-20, 10-8 Big Ten) and entered into a virtual tie with Michigan State for the final Big Ten Tournament spot.