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Two days after beating down UCAM Murcia for a second-consecutive blowout win, Northwestern basketball gave CB Tarragona a similar treatment Saturday. The Wildcats beat the Spanish side 85-63, as they exploded in the second half following an unconvincing first two quarters of play.
The star of the afternoon was senior Tre Demps, who scored 38 points and sparked an offense that couldn't get much going early on.
Tre Demps with 38 points. He takes a seat with 3:26 remaining and Northwestern leading 79-55. #B1GCats
— NU Men's Basketball (@NUMensBball) August 29, 2015
Northwestern held a 19-14 lead after the first quarter, thanks to some more dunks--they don't call it Dunkwestern for no reason--as well as strong play from center Alex Olah.
A dunk by @ScottieLindsey caps the 1st quarter. Northwestern leads 19-14. @Alexandru_Olah leads with 8 points. #B1GCats
— NU Men's Basketball (@NUMensBball) August 29, 2015
CB Tarragona--who was a late addition to the Wildcats' schedule of opponents--would fight back with a 11-3 run to tie the score at 25 in the second quarter. However, Demps and Olah were too much, as the pair of key scorers--along with Vic Law--helped bring the lead back up to eight by halftime.
Back-to-back triples by Demps and @Followthe_LAW give Northwestern a 40-32 halftime lead. Demps has 15 points. pic.twitter.com/4IK9O61TlF
— NU Men's Basketball (@NUMensBball) August 29, 2015
While it was still a close game at the start of the third quarter, it didn't stay like that for long as Demps started to catch fire. Northwestern's starting shooting guard drilled a bunch of triples in the frame as the Wildcats used a 8-2 run to cushion their advantage and eventually run away from CB Tarragona.
Demps was the catalyst for the resurgence as he had 30 points just by the middle of the third quarter. By that point, though, Northwestern was already ahead 59-42 and the outcome of the game was essentially decided.
Tre Demps has 30. There’s still 3:45 left in the 3rd quarter. Northwestern’s lead is 59-42. #B1GCats
— NU Men's Basketball (@NUMensBball) August 29, 2015
The Wildcats went on to cruise toward the final buzzer, winning 85-63. The win was Northwestern's third in a row on the trip, each of which were complete blowouts. NU won those games by a combined 110 points. The team's final game of the trip is tomorrow afternoon at 10:30 CST against US Toulouges.
Northwestern improves to 3-1 in Spain with an 85-63 victory over @CBTarragona. Tre Demps screwed around and scored 38.
— NU Men's Basketball (@NUMensBball) August 29, 2015
A full recap of the game can be found here, courtesy of the team's Twitter account. Here are the video highlights:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Here are all of your Dempstacular highlights from tonight’s 85-63 victory over CB Tarragona in Spain. <a href="http://t.co/XPZsT64NW7">http://t.co/XPZsT64NW7</a></p>— NU Men's Basketball (@NUMensBball) <a href="https://twitter.com/NUMensBball/status/637751341683712001">August 29, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Earlier in the day, the team toured Barcelona and got to take a look around the 1992 Summer Olympics main stadium as well as some other sights.
This morning, the #B1GCats took a tour of Barcelona including seeing the stadium for the 1992 Summer Olympics. pic.twitter.com/3YfGCPsoCH
— NU Men's Basketball (@NUMensBball) August 29, 2015
Also, here's the third "Postcard from Spain" video the team released chronicling the trip. It shows parts of the team's visit to Valencia, where it met up with former Wildcat legend John Shurna, who is playing professionally with Valencia CB of the Liga ACB.
Check out today’s video Postcard from Spain featuring a trip to Valencia, @sanjaylumpkin34 and John Shurna. #B1GCats http://t.co/QLNGxpZcdq
— NU Men's Basketball (@NUMensBball) August 28, 2015