Box Score

RALEIGH, N.C. - Throughout the preseason, one of the things Northwestern men's basketball coach Bill Carmody has been pointing out is that his team suddenly has a lot of veterans. On Wednesday, that experience paid off as the Wildcats defeated Virginia Commonwealth, 78-73, in the first game of the eight-team Black Coaches Association (BCA) Invitational.

Ironically, it was the least experienced players in the rotation who led the way. Sophomore Jitim Young scored 19 points to lead NU scorers, while freshman Vedran Vukusic scored the team's first three points and had 16 for the game. Vukusic also hit all four of his three-point field goal attempts.

The Wildcats (1-0) play East Carolina, a 79-74 winner over Rutgers, in a semifinal at 8 p.m. (CST) Thursday. That game will be broadcast live on WGN Radio. The Rams (0-1), out of the Colonial Athletic Association, will face the Scarlet Knights in the consolation bracket. The other semifinal has North Carolina State, an easy winner over Prairie View A&M, taking on San Jose State, a 65-57 winner over Fairleigh Dickinson.

Winston Blakeand Tavaras Hardy each had 15 points for Northwestern. Junior guard Willie Taylor paced Virginia Commonwealth with 25 points, while Domonick Jones added 22 and L.F. Likcholitov had 14.

The Wildcats jumped out to a quick advantage, shredding the VCU defense and leading by as many as 16 points, 26-10, midway through the first half following a layup by Collier Drayton that was set up by a steal from Jason Burke. That lead was cut to single digits by the five-minute mark of the first half, then hovered right around that until halftime came with NU up, 42-30.

The Rams steadily fought back in the second half and closed to within five, 57-52, on a Taylor layup with 7:24 to play. Northwestern kept the edge throughout, although they could never get more than a 10-point lead, and Virginia Commonwealth had three possessions down the stretch trailing by five but couldn't narrow the deficit. After a rough patch that featured poor free-throw shooting by the Wildcats, the team righted the ship and made their freebies down the stretch.

The Wildcats shot 40.4 percent for the game while the Rams shot 41.5 percent. But Northwestern shot 50 percent from three-point land (12-24) and also had an eight-point edge at the charity stripe.