Northwestern narrowly avoided what could have been a devastating upset Saturday when it defeated Rutgers 69-65 at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Bryant McIntosh hit a 3-pointer with 58 seconds left to give the Wildcats a lead they barely held onto. A home loss to Big Ten bottom-dweller Rutgers, which fell to 2-13 in conference play, coupled with a home loss to Illinois likely would have damaged Northwestern’s bid for its first NCAA tournament appearance.

McIntosh finished with 18 points and six assists to lead the Wildcats, who tied a school record with their 20th victory against seven defeats. They also improved to 9-5 in the Big Ten.

The team’s leading scorer, Scottie Lindsey, returned to the lineup Saturday after missing the previous four games with mono. He six points on 2-for-8 shooting in 24 minutes.

Dererk Pardon had 12 points and eight rebounds for Northwestern.

Corey Sanders led the Scarlet Knights (13-15) with 17 points.

pskrbina@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @ChiTribSkrbina

Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.