Northwestern basketball spent the first half of its third day in Spain touring Real Madrid's famed Bernabeu Stadium and the second half thoroughly destroying Eurocolegio Casvi in a laugher by the score of 98-50. Fair to say it was a pretty good day for the Wildcats, who dropped a 84-82 nail-biter to CB Estudiantes on Monday.
Tuesday started off with the team and coaching staff visiting the home of Real Madrid, which has won 32 La Liga championships as well as 10 European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles. If you don't follow international soccer closely, those are both records, as Real Madrid is as successful and well-known a soccer team as there is. NU toured both Real's legendary stadium as well as its training facility, which has developed loads of soccer superstars.
A full photo gallery from the tour was uploaded on the team's Facebook page, which can be found here.
Sightseeing aside, the Wildcats still had work to do on Tuesday, which involved their second game in as many days, as they took on Madrid side Eurocolegio Casvi. However, this game was much easier for Northwestern than yesterday's was as NU won easily, nearly doubling up its opponent.
Northwestern cruises to a 98-50 victory over Eurocolegio Casvi. @ScottieLindsey leads the way with 21 points. Recap and highlights coming.
— NU Men's Basketball (@NUMensBball) August 25, 2015
It's good to see sophomore Scottie Lindsey step up with a big game, as he led Northwestern in scoring Tuesday. Freshman Aaron Falzon impressed again, hitting a bunch of threes early on that helped the Wildcats set the tone for the rest of the way. The start he's having to his college career, albeit in exhibition play, is certainly raising eyebrows on the Northwestern staff.
Aaron Falzon now with consecutive triples and the #B1GCats lead is 15-3 with 5:30 left 1st quarter.
— NU Men's Basketball (@NUMensBball) August 25, 2015
This contest was never really close at all, as the Wildcats jumped out to a 8-2 lead and never looked back. They put the stranglehold on Eurocolegio Casvi with 16 unanswered points at the end of the first half, which resulted in a 50-27 advantage at the break.
Northwestern on a 16-0 run to break it wide open. #B1GCats lead 44-18. pic.twitter.com/D7XVIR9tDg
— NU Men's Basketball (@NUMensBball) August 25, 2015
But maybe the biggest development from the big win was strong interior play by Joey van Zegeren, who--according to the team's Twitter account--threw down a bunch of dunks in the second half to maintain the Wildcats' lead. Van Zegeren, the transfer from Virginia Tech, is expected to be a huge addition--both literally and figuratively--for Chris Collins this year and should be vital off the bench.
JvZ is putting the down. Two huge dunks this quarter, 11 points in the game. #B1GCats lead 65-38. pic.twitter.com/7VBojxwayL
— NU Men's Basketball (@NUMensBball) August 25, 2015
The Wildcats, now sitting at 1-1 on their trip, don't play again until Thursday against UCAM Murcia. Tomorrow, they'll travel southeast to Alicante, on the Spanish coast, where they'll stay before heading to Barcelona.
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Below is the Wildcats' second "Postcard from Spain," which is the series of videos the team is sending out from its trip. The latest one covers the team's visit to Bernabeu Stadium and features narration by Tre Demps.
.@NUMensBball #B1GCats toured @realmadrid's Bernabéu Stadium today! Pretty cool, @tim_lenahan? #PoundTheRock http://t.co/hY96Uv8aHq
— #B1GCats (@NU_Sports) August 25, 2015