Northwestern looks to finish strong against Minnesota.

When Minnesota takes on Northwestern in Minneapolis on Saturday night, a pair of teams will look to find strength to advance to Big Ten tournament play.

Northwestern (13-17, 5-14 Big Ten) suffered a four-point loss at home Wednesday against heavily favored No. 15 Purdue. The Wildcats won at home against Maryland, on the road against Indiana, and at home against Oregon before losing to the Boilermakers.

Northwestern coach Chris Collins said he is pleased with his players as the postseason approaches.

“I was really proud of our guys,” Collins said after the 70-66 loss to Purdue. “I thought we fought for about 40 minutes.

“…I think we’re playing our best basketball right now. We’ve won three times (at the time), and I think the way we played tonight, we’ve done a lot of good things and we’ve just got to keep holding on.

“Our spirit is good. We’re playing really hard. It’s the best defense we’ve played in a while and we’ve got to stick with that as we head to Minnesota and the Big Ten Tournament.”

Minnesota (14-16, 7-12) looks to finish the regular season on a high note under first-year coach Nico Medved. The Golden Gophers suffered a 30-point loss at Indiana on Wednesday, but had won three of their previous four games before the contest.

Medved said the team was in a difficult situation with limited bench availability due to the spate of injuries.

“We are here now in the bodies we have,” he said. “… Once we started to get away from it (vs. Indiana), it was pretty tough.

“…It’s a good line for us. We can’t afford to get into foul trouble because we don’t have a bench, but at the same time we have to play with a little more physicality.”

This is the second meeting between the programs this season. Minnesota won the first matchup, 84-78, on Jan. 3 in Evanston, Illinois. Cade Tyson scored 24 points, Isaac Asma added 18 for the Golden Gophers and Nick Martinelli had 26 for the Wildcats.

–Field level media