Terps stumble in second half, lose to Northwestern in Big Ten quarterfinal

They’ll now await their NCAA Tournament fate, which will be announced on Sunday. But in the second half, Northwestern had an easy path to the basket seemingly every time down court. The Terps won at least 24 regular-season games for the third straight year, something no Maryland coach had ever accomplished.

Northwestern picked up an 83-61 win over Rutgers last night in its Big Ten Tournament opener. The Badgers face IN on Friday evening IN a game that many expect Wisconsin to win. Unfortunately for them, the Wildcats team had a great showing, too.

Caught in the crosshairs of this crowd oozing excitement was the No. 6 seeded Northwestern Wildcats, who was an amusing role reversal for the yearlong darlings of the conference. A pair of free throws by Law interrupted the run – briefly.

In trying moments like these, Northeastern coach Chris Collins has come to lean on Greensburg native Bryant McIntosh. Scottie Lindsey is averaging 14 points for Northwestern, Vic Law is averaging 12.6 points and 5.9 rebounds, and Dererk Pardon is averaging 8.8 points and 8 rebounds.

First Team All-Big Ten selection Melo Trimble finished with 20 points, and got a solid effort from freshmen Kevin Huerter (19 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals) and Anthony Cowan (13 points). We played last night. Northwestern did a terrific job of taking the Terps out of what they do best. Being able to be a team that’s gotten wins in the Big Ten, broke our single-season wins record, made it to the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament.

“It hurts”, Trimble said.

“We had a good crowd there”. The noise reverberated all the way up to the 400 level, where a few hundred members of Maryland’s “The Pride” student section chanted like it was a home game, all game. The Terps had beaten those Wildcats in the title game of the Barclays Center Classic back in November. NU executed offensively as the second half wound down, and it closed out the game without issue to set up a showdown with Wisconsin in tomorrow’s semifinal. Trimble also paced the Terps on the glass with six boards and notched his 500 career made free throw in the second half. Northwestern will play Rutgers or Ohio State on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET.

“Tonight, we played an elite team that was playing at an elite level”, Pikiell said. A lot of turnovers. “But to me I thought he was a first-team, all-league guy”.

“The crowd was wonderful”, Turgeon said. But we allowed them to do it. “It’s just a little too far”. We just weren’t cutting hard enough.

The first game of the day featured the red-hot Michigan Wolverines against the top-seeded Purdue Boilermakers.

“He’s been an extension of me”, Collins said. “We didn’t play very smart”. Got to give Northwestern a ton of credit.

Said Huerter, “We just have to try to forget about this game”. Dodd and sophomore forward Ivan Bender also got into quick foul trouble, and Gill was the only big man that could fill in.

The Terps will take the short drive back to campus and get ready to hear what the NCAA tournament committee thinks of the season they put together. They haven’t beaten a higher seeded team in their two NCAA tournaments. They said, ‘We’re here to win.’ They believe it. “It kind of stinks going back”, Huerter said.