Jack Karasinski, Jake West and Northwestern opened their season with some fiery offense in a dominant win, defeating Binghamton 86-60 on Monday in Evanston, Ill.
The Wildcats began the game with a 12-3 scoring run and didn’t falter for the rest of the contest, their lead not shrinking below six points after that run.
As a team, Northwestern (1-0) shot 55.8% from the field while holding Binghamton (0-1) to just 40.4% on field goals. Notably, coach Chris Collins’ Wildcats were able to limit the impact of Jeremiah Quigley — who averaged 14.5 points per game for the Bearcats last season — holding him to nine points on 2-of-10 shooting before he fouled out.
Northwestern was led by Karasinski, who scored 24 points on a career-high seven 3-pointers, and West, who poured in a career-high 20 points. LA Pratt and Angelo Ciaravino added 19 and 13 points, respectively.
West also notched a double-double with 12 assists as the Wildcats’ primary facilitator, finding teammates on the perimeter and even serving up two alley-oops for Ciaravino.
On the other side of the floor, coach Levell Sanders’ squad managed to improve its offensive output throughout the game — relying heavily on Demetrius Lilley and his team-high 11 points — but the team couldn’t keep up with hot-shooting Wildcats. Lilley added a game-high 13 rebounds.
After missing its first field goal attempt of the game, Northwestern drained six of its next seven shots. It was a sign of things to come for the hosts, who shot 72% from the field in the first half.
Binghamton fought back throughout the half by taking advantage of size mismatches and fouls by the Wildcats. But after an 11-0 run by the hosts, the Bearcats trailed 51-35 at halftime.
Northwestern’s lead remained in double digits for the entire second half, but it couldn’t pull much further ahead as Binghamton kept stacking points. The visitors had eight players enter the scoring column in the final 20 minutes, with Lilley leading the pack with five points.
Looking to pull away for good, Karasinski took matters into his hands, draining 3-of-4 threes in the span of 2:22.
The Wildcats led by as many as 28 points in the second half.