ROSEMONT, Ill.-It wasn’t as dramatic or memorable as Saturday, but Northwestern blew another double-digit lead on Tuesday night against Maryland at Allstate Arena.
The Wildcats led the Terrapins by 11 points, 42-31, after Vic Law hit a 3-pointer with 19:06 left in the second half. But Maryland outscored Northwestern by 18 points the rest of the way to post a 71-64 win over the reeling and still undermanned Wildcats.
Of course, Northwestern blew a much bigger advantage – a Big Ten-record 27 points – before losing to No. 2 Michigan State two days ago, so maybe tonight was progress. It still left the Wildcats with a four-game losing streak, the last three of them coming after blowing leads in the second half.
The road win was Maryland’s first since Dec. 3 and completes a two-game sweep over the Wildcats. The Terrapins beat Northwestern in College Park, 73-57, just nine days ago.
Once again, Northwestern played without star point guard Bryant McIntosh, who missed his second straight game. Scottie Lindsey led Northwestern with 15 points but, handling the ball a lot in McIntosh’s absence, he turned the ball over a game-high six times.
Dererk Pardon finished with 14 points and six rebounds, while Isiah Brown came off the bench with 11 points and three assists for Northwestern.
Maryland was led by Kevin Huerter’s 18 points and 13 each by Anthony Cowan and Dion Wiley.
Turnovers told the story in the second half: Northwestern head coach Chris Collins said that turnovers were the difference for the Wildcats in the second half. After turning the ball over just four times in the first half, when they scored 37 points and led by 7, NU gave it away 10 times in the final 20 minutes. That includes four times during a 4:20 span when Maryland went on a 13-2 run to take the lead it wouldn’t give up the rest of the way. The Terrapins scored 18 points off turnovers in the second half as their full-court press harassed the Wildcats’ ballhandlers and disrupted their offensive sets. Maryland guards Cowan and Wiley came up with two steals apiece, helping them to a combined 18 points in the period. Northwestern bigs Barret Benson and Gavin Skelly combined for five turnovers.
Live by the 3, die by the 3: Maryland had it way inside all night, outscoring the Wildcats 34-18 on points in the paint. But the Wildcats managed to hold the lead for most of the game by hitting 3-pointers to offset the imbalance. In the first half, NU shooters hit 8 of 15 shots from beyond the arc, with Law and Lindsey hitting two each. But in the second, Maryland’s defense ratcheted up a notch and the Wildcats’ shots weren’t falling. Over the last 20 minutes, Northwestern was just 2 of 10 from behind the 3-point line as the offense ground to a halt.
Where does NU go from here? Northwestern has now lost four games in a row. What’s frustrating for Collins is that he feels the Wildcats should have won three of them – they led in the second half in losses to Rutgers, Michigan State and now Maryland. Win those, he points out, and the season would be a different story. “We didn’t take advantage of those opportunities,” he said. McIntosh remains day-to-day with the injury to his shooting shoulder, so there’s a real chance that NU will finish the season with only the eight scholarship players they’ve had the last two games. Law rolled his ankle in the second half and didn’t return, but Pardon, who finished after the game that Law was “fine.” At this point, Pardon said, there’s only one motivation left for this team in closing out the season: “Winning games. That’s it.”
