It would have been nice of the public announcer to warn the crowd before the second half of Northwestern’s 97-78 win over the NIU men’s basketball team:

“Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt this close basketball game to bring you the John Shurna show!”

Going 7-for-8 from three-point range in the second half, Shurna racked up 25 points in the latter half of Friday’s game. Exploiting the Huskies 2-3 zone defense at will, the Glenbard West graduate converted nearly every open look he got in the second half.

After Shurna dropped his sixth straight three-point shot at 10:18 in the second half, the score stood at 76-53 in favor of the Wildcats. While at the halftime break, NIU and Northwestern were separated by just five points.

Shurna entered halftime with six points on 1-5 shooting.

Northwestern forward Drew Crawford  had seen Shurna’s Friday night unfold before and was not surprised with his teammate’s ability to get hot at the right time.

“I’ve seen so many times where Johnny [Shurna] won’t have such a good first half, but he doesn’t let that get to him,” Crawford said. “He’ll battle back in the second, and once he gets one then he’s on fire.”

Once Shurna started hitting his shots, Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody knew the junior’s teammates would be smart enough to find him on the floor.

“Drew’s [Crawford] gone on some runs like that where he makes a lot of shots, and [Shurna] has done the same,” Carmody said. “I just like the fact that the guys were getting the ball to him. When you’re on the court, you know more than the coach often times, so they were just throwing the ball to the right guy.”`

Shurna took full advantage of NIU’s 2-3 zone. One of the fundamental flaws to any zone defense is its vulnerability to a three-point shooting team as accurate as Northwestern. In addition to Shurna’s seven three-pointers, the Wildcats netted an additional eight bombs from behind the arc. 

Even when the Huskies were able to get a rare defender in front of Shurna, the 6-foot-8 junior would simply use his imposing height to shoot over the NIU defender.

“As a coach you call timeout and you talk about getting back in transition and not losing guys, and they listened to that,” Patton said. “But then he just started making shots over guys and that’s why it was difficult to play my son [Michael Patton] because defensively guys can shoot over him.”

In the coming weeks, NIU will continue on its tough non-conference schedule. Senior shooting guard Xavier Silas realizes the upcoming challenges facing his team. There is one positive, however, that Silas sees in going against the likes of Bradley, Temple and Missouri on the road.

“On those tougher road trips I don’t think John Shurna will be there,” Silas said.