Maryland men’s basketball had an efficient offensive performance the last time it faced Northwestern just over a month ago. The Terps scored 69 points, shooting 52 percent from the field and 35 percent from three in a three-point loss.
Exactly six weeks later, the two teams faced off again — this time on the Terps’ home floor — and they put forth one of their poorest offensive outputs of the season.
Maryland shot just 38.9 percent from the field while recording its lowest clip from beyond the arc on Wednesday. Even while missing Ty Berry and Ryan Langborg, two of their starters from the January contest, Northwestern controlled the tempo from start to finish, defeating Maryland, 68-61, at Xfinity Center.
“We got some good open looks early,” coach Kevin Willard said. “… We missed some good looks and it kind of just affected us the rest of the game.”
DeShawn Harris-Smith drilled Maryland’s first three pointer of the game less than three minutes into the action. He finished the game with 14 points and five rebounds on 6-12 shooting, continuing a nice recent stretch of games for the freshman.
“I’ve been saying all year,” Harris-Smith said, “the more games I get under my belt, the more comfortable I’m gonna get, the more the game’s gonna slow down for me. I feel like it’s been doing that all year.”
The Terps (15-14, 7-11 Big Ten) started the contest 2-for-10 from the field and 1-for-7 from three despite some open looks in the opening few minutes. They suffered an eight-minute scoring drought in the middle of the first period, but never trailed by more than two points during it — Northwestern (20-8, 11-6 Big Ten) had a five-minute stretch where it scored just one bucket of its own.
Maryland shot just 19 percent from the field in the first half and 1-of-14 from three. The Wildcats weren’t much better, scoring 29 first-half points on 37 percent shooting to lead by five at the break.
Over half of the game’s first 53 combined points came from free throws, as the sides combined for 29 points from the stripe in the span. The two teams combined for 32 first-half free throw attempts and 23 fouls. The Terps had 13 of those fouls.
Maryland faced significant foul trouble the entire game. Julian Reese picked up his second foul midway through the first half, and his fourth with 12:31 remaining in the second period. Jordan Geronimo, Donta Scott and Caelum Swanton-Rodger also had at least two fouls in the opening frame, allowing the Wildcats to add 14 points from the charity stripe.
Boo Buie, who ranks fourth in the Big Ten in points per game and scored 36 points against Maryland last month, was stifled by its hard-nosed defense on Wednesday. He finished the night with just 12 points on 4-13 shooting.
The Terps improved on their offensive woes in the second half, shooting 57.1 percent from the field while more than doubling their field goal total from the opening 20 minutes.
But the Wildcats also put forth a respectable second-half performance, knocking down over half of their shot attempts while drilling 12 more free throws.
The Terps were unsuccessful in their late comeback attempt, dropping to 11-5 at home on the season. Yet another winnable game for Maryland ended in disappointment due to its inability to produce on the offensive end of the floor. The Terps will be back at home Sunday to face Indiana in their final contest at Xfinity Center this season.
“Just knowing how we could be, where we should be, and then just looking at our record, it doesn’t fit our team or anything like that,” Jahmir Young said. “… It’s tough. Trying to keep positive, trying to stay positive.”
