EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) — Chase Audige scored 24 points, Boo Buie added 15 points and Northwestern beat Brown 63-58 on Thursday for its fifth straight victory.
Audige and Buie combined for 23 of Northwestern’s 33 second-half points. But Audige and Buie both struggled from the field, going 12 of 33, and Northwestern shot just 34.5% (20 of 58). The Wildcats went 19 of 21 from the stripe, with 12 straight makes from Audige and Buie, to stay in front for the final 16 minutes.
Northwestern (10-2) is off to its best start to a season since the 2016-17 team opened 12-2 before losing to top-seeded Gonzaga in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Northwestern defense continued to dominate opponents after entering ranked seventh nationally by holding teams to an average of 55.5 points per game. The Wildcats also entered third nationally in opponent field-goal percentage at 34.2, but Brown made 19 of 45 shots for 42.2%
The Bears were undone by 17 turnovers and going 11 of 22 from the stripe.
Ty Berry had 12 points and Matthew Nicholson grabbed 11 rebounds for Northwestern. Audige joined the 1,000-point club.
Kino Lilly Jr. scored 17 points and Paxson Wojcik had 13 points and eight rebounds for Brown (7-6), which had not played since defeating New Hampshire on Dec. 21.
The Wildcats concluded their nonconference portion of the regular season and host Ohio State on Jan. 1.
___
More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25