Martinelli leads Northwestern against Minnesota

Minnesota Golden Gophers (8-5, 1-1 Big Ten) at Northwestern Wildcats (8-5, 0-2 Big Ten)

Evanston, Illinois; Saturday, 5 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Northwestern hosts Minnesota after Nick Martinelli scored 32 points in Northwestern’s 80-60 win against the Howard Bison.

The Wildcats are 6-1 in home games. Northwestern is 2-1 in games decided by less than 4 points.

The Golden Gophers are 1-1 against Big Ten opponents. Minnesota scores 72.7 points while outscoring opponents by 7.9 points per game.

Northwestern averages 80.5 points, 15.7 more per game than the 64.8 Minnesota allows. Minnesota has shot at a 45.7% rate from the field this season, 5.3 percentage points greater than the 40.4% shooting opponents of Northwestern have averaged.

The Wildcats and Golden Gophers face off Saturday for the first time in Big Ten play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Martinelli averages 1.3 made 3-pointers per game for the Wildcats, scoring 22.8 points while shooting 55.6% from beyond the arc. Arrinten Page is shooting 59.3% and averaging 13.4 points over the past 10 games.

Cade Tyson is shooting 53.5% and averaging 21.9 points for the Golden Gophers. Jaylen Crocker-Johnson is averaging 13.8 points over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Wildcats: 5-5, averaging 79.1 points, 29.3 rebounds, 18.3 assists, 5.0 steals and 3.9 blocks per game while shooting 48.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 74.0 points per game.

Golden Gophers: 6-4, averaging 70.3 points, 30.3 rebounds, 18.0 assists, 7.7 steals and 3.0 blocks per game while shooting 44.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 64.9 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.