Northwestern handles Mercyhurst in season opener, 70-47
EVANSTON – Northwestern set the tone for their 2025-26 season with an 70-47 win over Mercyhurst on Monday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Transfer big man Arrinten Page made his Northwestern debut in style, with 18 points and 12 rebounds and no fouls in 23 minutes, an authoritative performance after two roller-coaster exhibitions. Star forward Nick Martinelli was right behind him with 17 points, 15 of them in the first half.
Both bigs were nails at the free throw line: Page was 10-for-12 and Martinelli 8-for-11.
After multiple seasons of controversial calls from officials, the referees seemed to favor the Wildcats’ physical style of play on both ends. The Wildcats committed just 12 fouls on defense, while drawing 23 on offense. They took 38 free throws to Mercyhurst’s 13.
Shooting guard Angelo Ciaravino was projected to start but was ruled out pregame after a hard fall after being fouled going for a lob against Illinois State. Collins said the team is hopeful to have him back as soon as their next game, on Friday, and the injury isn’t structural. At this early point in the season, the staff decided it was better to be safe than sorry.
Point guard Jayden Reid got caught up in foul trouble in the first half, limiting him to eight points in 20 minutes with high school teammate and now-Philadelphia 76er VJ Edgecombe sitting courtside.
Here are our takeaways from Northwestern’s season opener.
Martinelli’s and team’s passing an area to improve
Martinelli was dominant this game, and while it’s just a one-game sample size, he also had zero assists. He had just two turnovers, which came when Mercyhurst was able to trap him at the elbow and force a bad pass. But Much better and stronger teams will be bringing that kind of heat this season, so he has to be able to run through his processes quicker.
“I don’t think two turnovers is too bad [for Nick], obviously, we want him to have some assists…” Collins said. “I thought when they stripped him in the middle of the floor, he should have made the pass to the corner. But these are good learning moments for him. He’s going to see different defense throughout the course of the game.”
Martinelli was characteristically blunt in his assessment.
“[Doubles are] going to be coming and I have to do a better job passing the ball…” he said. “It’s no secret I’m not a great passer, but I’m going to work my butt off and continue to try and get better in that aspect of my game. Hopefully, I figure it out at some point.”
Mercyhurst threw a few different looks at the Wildcats from a matchup zone to a 1-3-1 to a full-court 1-2-2 press that even forced a 10-second violation. The Wildcats finished with 13 assists to 12 turnovers, an unsustainable clip, though Collins thought it looked worse than it was due to some sloppy play late in the game with the result already well in hand.
It’s hard to be too picky after a 23-point season-opening win but the Wildcats will need to find a much better offensive flow as their strength of schedule picks up.
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Shaky start for Singleton and other freshmen
True freshman Tre Singleton got the nod as the starting forward next to Martinelli and seemed to get off to a smooth start when he hit a jumper for the first points of the game. However, he was just 1-for-6 from the field, 0-for-3 on 3s and 0-for-3 from the free-throw line for the rest of the game. He snagged six rebounds, with a block and a steal, and was a +8 in his 26 minutes, so he looked physically ready to play. He just couldn’t get his shot to fall.
“I thought some of the young guys were a little bit nervous, little bit anxious, which is very understandable,” Collins said. “In your first college game, there’s a lot of emotion that goes into that. You’ll see those guys settle in.”
Three other members of the Class of 2025 made their debut: guard Jake West, who was recently cleared to return after missing both exhibition games with a concussion; forward Tyler Kropp and guard Phoenix Gill.
West got the most run with 10 minutes, then Kropp with eight and Gill, who played only the last two minutes of the game. Gill was the only one of the trio to score, hitting both of his free throws with 42 seconds remaining.
Singleton’s 26 minutes were the second-most behind only Martinelli’s 32, so he’s going to be relied on as a consistent contributor. West and Kropp will likely get some playing time in these early games against lower level non-conference opponents, though their first reps against Big Ten or Power Five teams may be further down the road than this fall.
Deep rotations but stagnant offense
Eleven Wildcats played in this game, and many of those minutes didn’t come in garbage time. Collins played 10 players by the 10:10 mark in the first half, working his way through the many lineup options and trying to accommodate for the absence of the injured Ciaravino.
Jordan Clayton got the starting nod in place of Ciaravino and finished with zero points, six rebounds and three assists in 20 minutes. Other than Page and Martinelli, no other starter (Reid, Clayton, Singleton) scored 10+ points against their Northeast Conference foe. On top of that, the offense struggled to find a flow and Martinelli’s inability to find open teammates for points was an issue.
A positive spark came from KJ Windham, who was the third player off the bench but finished with 11 points, on 3-for-5 shooting on 3s, in 21 minutes, the fourth-heaviest workload behind Martinelli, Singleton and Page.
“I’ve told our players I want them all to view themselves as starters,” Collins said. “We had an exhibition game at Iowa State where KJ got three quick fouls, couldn’t get in a rhythm and played seven minutes. Then he comes back the next two games, and he gets in the 20s. It’s going to be night-to-night for some of these guys.”
The other members of that rotation are Clayton, Ciaravino, Justin Mullins and Max Green. Green was another player making his Northwestern debut and feeling the weight of the moment, with three points on 1-for-5 shooting. If the Wildcats want to scale up their offense, they’ll need more from him.
Northwestern never trailed in this game, and it’s why these types of opponents are scheduled to start the season. The concerning trend is that the Wildcats couldn’t find, create or make many shots. They shot 36.5% from the floor (19-for-52) and 26.3% from beyond the arc (5-for-19). They won’t get 38 free throws to bail out their inefficient offense every game this season.
There are some concerns about the overall shot making and passing of this team, but they weren’t a problem against Mercyhurst thanks to Page’s dominance, Martinelli’s consistency and a defense that held the Lakers to just 1-for-18 shooting from long distance.
