Northwestern 70, Iowa 66: Drew Crawford finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and five steals as the Wildcats picked up an important road victory to boost their NCAA tournament hopes.

JerShon Cobb added 13 points for Northwestern (18-12, 8-10 Big Ten), which swept the season series from Iowa (16-15, 8-10) The Wildcats locked up the No. 7 seed in next week’s Big Ten tournament, despite an off game from John Shurna.

Shurna, the conference’s leading scorer, saw his 22-game streak of scoring in double figures come to an end as he finished with just nine points, 11 below his season average.

The Wildcats quickly fell behind by 15 points midway early on, but forced 10 of Iowa’s 13 first-half turnovers during a half-ending 29-7 run in which they held the Hawkeyes without a field goal for over seven minutes.

Northwestern stretched its lead to 51-40 on a dunk by Shurna with 16:18 remaining, but Iowa held the Wildcats to just one point over a four-minute stretch late as the Hawkeyes trailed 66-64 with two minutes remaining on a 3-pointer from Matt Gatens.

Following two uncharacteristic misses at the free-throw line from Shurna – a 77 percent foul shooter – the Hawkeyes had a chance to tie the game or take the lead in the final seconds, but Josh Oglesby’s 3-point attempt with three seconds remaining was short.

Alex Marcotullio then hit two free throws to close out the game.

Gatens had a team-high 17 points for Iowa, which will enter the conference tournament as the No. 8 seed.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Iowa led 28-13 with 9:27 left in the first half, but Northwestern rallied to take a 42-35 halftime advantage … Much like their first meeting when Northwestern held a 14-point advantage in points off turnovers, the Wildcats forced 18 turnovers en route to a 23-9 margin on Saturday … Iowa entered the game as the leader in the conference in steals, but lost that battle in this game as well, 11-6.