Maryland had another sloppy performance on the road which will once again dip the Terps into a sub .500 conference record. The final score being: Maryland 74 – Northwestern 76 in OT.

To rub salt in the wounds Northwestern won off of a buzzer-beater.

As you would assume, a terrible shooting night, combined with a load of turnovers were the woes of the Terps tonight.

The Terps shot 24-63 from the field (38.1%) 6-20 from three-point-land (30%) and combined for 16 turnovers.

The bunch of Selton Miguel (4 pts) and Derik Queen (9 pts) have added to the troubled start on the road.

The Terps’ were led in this game by Juju Reese who ended with 23 points and Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who ended with 14 points and a pair of clutch layups.

Northwestern killed the Maryland through Brooks Barnhizer and Nick Martinelli, who was responsible for the game-winner. They scored over 20 points each, accounting for more than half of the Wildcats offense.

Takeaways

Kevin Willard’s road woes: How long can they last? 6-21 on the road as the Maryland head coach, is it time to think Kevin Willard can’t operate in an opposing Big Ten environment? Where do we go from here?

Where did Tafara Gapare go: Tagara Gapare was the second most impressive player in the first half behind Juju Reese and he hardly saw the court in the second half. I feel like we see this a lot with the Junior transfer. I guess that Kevin Willard likes to have both Juju and Queen out there and can’t find space for Gapare when it comes to the second half.

Maryland struggles against opposing stars: More this year than before, it feels like Kevin Willard and co. have had a hard time slowing down the opposing stars. Kam Jones, Martinelli, Braden Smith, Eric Dixon, and Jackson Shelstad have all had explosive games against the Terps so far this year. It felt like in years prior Maryland was better than most when it came to slowing down teams’ premier players, forcing them to look elsewhere for their points. Hasn’t been able to recreate that success yet this year. 

What comes next

Maryland now looks next to a home game against a good Nebraska team, in what yet again feels like a most win, especially if the Terps want to be more than just any ole tournament team.

Sunday, 12:00pm: Maryland vs Nebraska on BTN.

image via (X/TerrapinHoops)