Maryland men’s basketball outlasts Northwestern
By Wesley Brown
The Maryland men’s basketball team found itself in a dogfight on Tuesday.
The Terrapins persevered and were able to outlast Northwestern 62-56 in overtime. Guard Melo Trimble had a terrific game as he scored 18 points (8-of-18) while dishing out six assists.
Forward Robert Carter added 10 points and a season-high 14 rebounds against the Wildcats.
“All night, we settled for jump shots,” coach Mark Turgeon said. “In overtime, Melo (Trimble) didn’t settle. He drove and got to the rim. He got baskets for Robert and Diamond (Stone). I thought his defense on McIntosh was great. I thought he did an unbelievable job on him.”
Maryland did lead by as many of eight points in the second half, but found themselves trailing with 7:40 remaining in the game. Guard Tre Demps connected on a jump shot to give Northwestern a 45-43 lead.
“I don’t even worry about how many shots I take,” Trimble said. “The coaches tell me to be aggressive as much as I can. Like tonight, I needed to be aggressive. I missed some shots and I feel like they were good looks, but I just played basketball and didn’t worry about my percentage.”
The Terps eventually regained the lead with 4:45 to go after a three-pointer from forward Jake Layman. Layman was definitely Maryland’s most consistent three-point shooter as he connected on two of his four attempts from beyond the arc.
With 2:35 to go, guard Bryant McIntosh made one of two free throw attempts to tie the game at 48 to send it to overtime.
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The Terps led for the majority of overtime, including outscoring the Wildcats 7-2 during the final 1:13 to seal the game.
Defense was certainly the story throughout the majority of the game.
“I think we guarded as well as we’ve guarded this year,” Carter said. “We went scouted them hard and we just stuck to our defensive principles. It was one of those defensive games. It was a lot of hard-nosed defense.”
Maryland started off the game loose and Northwestern took advantage of that, jumping out to an early lead and maintaining that through much of the first half.
Maryland took a 31-29 lead into the half even though they had nine first half turnovers versus Northwestern’s five. Neither team had it going for the start of the second half until Carter hit a shot just over two minutes into the half.
The biggest issue for Maryland was the fact that they were out-rebounded 41-31, including surrendering 17 offensive boards. Carter and Layman did do their part as the dynamic duo combined for 21 of the team’s rebounds.
The Terps also struggled from beyond the arc, only hit four of their 17 three-point attempts. Coupled with the fact that Maryland only registered four offensive rebounds, that made the three-point deficiencies even more troubling.