Maryland fell to Northwestern, 78-74, on Feb. 18, despite a career performance from redshirt freshman guard Andre Mills.
Mills poured in a career-high 39 points on an efficient 11 of 16 shooting night, but it wasn’t enough as the Terrapins dropped to 10-16 overall and 3-11 in Big Ten play. Mills was the lone Terp in double figures until senior forward Solomon Washington finished with 11 points in the closing seconds of the game.
Maryland will look to return to the win column when it returns to College Park to face Washington on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 3 p.m.
Mills, who has emerged as the focal point of Maryland’s offense, opened the game by scoring the Terrapins’ first eight points without missing a shot from the field. He tallied 22 points in the first half alone, keeping Maryland within reach.
The Terrapins refused to quit even when the game was thought to be over by those in attendance. With one second remaining, Mills drilled a tough, contested 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 77-74.
“I thought we played with incredible fight,” head coach Buzz Williams said. “I thought we did a lot of the things that we had to do. I thought we were better in a lot of ways than we were on Sunday [against Rutgers].”
A quick foul on the ensuing inbound sent Northwestern guard Angelo Ciaravino to the free-throw line. He missed the first attempt off the back rim, briefly giving Maryland hope, before calmly sinking the second to seal the Wildcats’ victory.
Northwestern scored 17 points off 15 Maryland turnovers, critical in a four-point loss.
“If you have 15 turnovers, you can’t turn it over in the 20-percentile range,” Williams said. “It’s just too much pressure for any team, but specifically our team.”
The contest was a back-and-forth affair, featuring 10 lead changes. However, the final swing proved decisive. Maryland briefly regained momentum with a 7-0 run to take a 50-44 lead with 14-plus minutes left, but it marked the Terrapins’ final surge of the night.
Northwestern responded emphatically, unleashing a 22-4 run in a seven-minute stretch. Guard Jordan Clayton sparked the surge, knocking down four 3-pointers during the run and finishing with a career-high 20 points. Forward Nick Martinelli led the Wildcats with a team-high 29 points.
“You can’t let [Martinelli] wear you out, and you can’t foul him,” Williams said. “So, he scores eight points on free throws. That would be the one thing that was a part of the plan that we didn’t execute very well.”
Northwestern entered the game in the bottom third of the Big Ten in 3-point shooting, so Terrapins planned to make the Wildcats beat them from the outside — and they did. Northwestern finished the game 12 of 21 from deep.
“You’re going to give up some threes. I would say that’s the highest number of threes they’ve made,” Williams said. “Their analytics say that our plan was right. You are going to give up some. Our contests were not great at times.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics