The 4th-ranked Maryland Terrapins dominated from start to finish, whipping the Northwestern Wildcats 72-59 at Welsh Ryan Arena giving coach Mark Turgeon his 100th victory at the University of Maryland.
The Terps jumped out to a 15-6 lead on a Rasheed Sulaimon three-pointer and never looked back. Later in the half, Sulaimon, who led Maryland with 13 first half points, sank another three giving the Terps a 33-14 lead. The game was all but over in the first half as the Terps held a 40-20 lead at the break.
Their blistering start was good to see as they rebounded nicely from their last game against Penn State which was by far their worst shooting game of the year as they went 6 for 24 in the first half of that game.
In the second half, Maryland enjoyed a double-digit lead the entire way as the Wildcats made mini-runs but could get no closer than 14 points to the Terps. Maryland improved to (13-1, 2-0 Big Ten).
Maryland was led by guard Melo Trimble who scored a team-high 24 points, 17 in the second half. He also had eight assists and eight rebounds. His back court mate, Sulaimon ended the game with 16 points, six rebounds and six of the team’s 21 assists.
Diamond Stone, coming off of his freshman-record 39 point performance against the Nittany Lions had 10 points and provided a first-half spark off of the bench. Senior Jake Layman had a nice all-around game scoring nine points, tying Trimble with a team-leading eight rebounds. He also had two assists, two blocks and two steals.
Robert Carter Jr. ended with eight points three assists, three blocks and three steals. The Terrapins blistering start allowed them to shoot 50 percent from the field in the first half as they made 17 of 34 shots. They also shot 35.6 percent for the game from three-point range making 11 of 31 attempts from long distance.
Meanwhile, they held the Wildcats to 8-25 for 32 percent shooting efficiency in the deciding first half. The Wildcats, known as a three-point shooting team were a woeful 2 for 20 or 20 percent from long distance for the game. For the game they shot 37 percent from the field.
Maryland played a terrific defensive game. Besides clamping down and contributing to the Wildcat’s dismal shooting evening they had nine steals and nine blocked shots. Northwestern did win the rebounding battle, 40 -37.
Northwestern was led by Bryant McIntosh who had 17 points, nine assists, five rebounds and three steals. Tre Demps added nine points and Dererk Pardon had a team-high six rebounds and eight points in a losing effort for the (13-2, 1-1 ) Wildcats.
