Huerter's game-high 22 points help Terps power past Northwestern 73-57
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Maryland (17-10, 6-8 Big Ten) got off to a fast start Feb. 10 against Northwestern (15-11, 6-7), and unlike many of their games this season the Terps kept their foot on the gas and rode their hot shooting and suffocating defense all the way to a 73-57 win at Xfinity Center.
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“I’m so proud of my guys,” Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon said. “We’ve been through it this year but we continue to fight, continue to get better. That was a hard prep game. They do a lot of different things. I thought we were terrific against their matchup. A lot of guys played well today. I think everyone who played played well.
Maryland hit its first six shots of the game, including four 3s, three of which came from sophomore wing Kevin Huerter, who finished with a game-high 22 points to go along with five assists, four rebounds, three steals and a block.
It was Maryland’s backcourt that stole the show Saturday afternoon, as sophomore point guard Anthony Cowan Jr. joined Huerter in the stat stuffing by scoring 16 points, ripping down seven rebounds, dishing out four assists, and coming up with two blocks and two steals against the Wildcats.
Freshman Darryl Morsell and redshirt junior Dion Wiley also scored in double figures with 14 and 10 points, respectively, and as a team the Terps shot 53 percent overall and 43 percent from beyond the arc (9-for-21).
The Terps offense continued to roll with four guards in the lineup on most occasions, but it was poor defense and rebounding that were their downfalls during their recent struggles. On Saturday afternoon against Northwestern, Maryland brought a much more physical style of play to the table and walked away with seven blocks--three of which came from freshman center Bruno Fernando--while holding the Wildcats to 33 percent shooting.
“Kevin Huerter was terrific; Anthony Cowan was terrific; Dion Wiley was terrific at both ends, and once we locked in, that’s as good as we’ve been defensively,” Turgeon said. “We played shots. We rebounded better in the second half. And we did a lot of really good things so this should give us confidence moving forward.”
Senior guard Scottie Lindsey was virtually Northwestern’s entire offense with his 20 points, but it took him 20 shots to reach that total and the rest of the Wildcats lineup was held in check, including their second-leading scorer on the season Bryant McIntosh, who played 28 minutes and finished without any points for the first time in his career.
“On ball screens we just tried to double [McIntosh] basically,” Turgeon said. “The backside of our ball-screen defense was terrific today, so that made the whole difference on it. And Anthony is a good defender; he can get up in him. He missed a couple early, wide-open 3s. If he makes them, it could be a different game for him. But he missed them and he never really got in a flow. I think he got in foul trouble, too.
“So we did a great job on him and I thought we did a great job on Lindsey. He made some tough shots but he had 20 points on 20 shots. I thought we did an unbelievable job on [Vic] Law. The one guy who got going for them in the second half was [Aaron] Falzon. But then we figured that out and guarded him better. And I thought our post defense on the big kid, that kid is good. [Derek] Pardon is a really good player and we did a nice job on him. So it was good to see. Guys were focused. I could see in their eyes before the game they were ready to go.”
Maryland continued to struggle a bit when it came to preventing offensive boards, finishing with a minus-seven margin against the Wildcats, but the Terps showed improvement in their overall rebounding and matched Northwestern’s 32 boards on Saturday. A boost on the boards for the final stretch of the season could lie ahead for Maryland, as senior center Michal Cekovsky (heel) returned to action for the first time since the Terps lost to Michigan State Jan. 28. Cekovsky scored four points and a block in his 15 minutes of playing time.
“Our guys make up their mind when they’re going to play and [Cekovsky] made up his mind that he was going to play,” Turgeon said. “So he practiced a little bit yesterday and was pretty good. We had to see how it would react and I never heard from the [doctor] so I just assumed he was going to play. I thought he was a little bit rusty in the game, but it’s good to have him back just to have that length around the rim. His ball-screen defense was terrific and he had a good understanding of what we wanted to do offensively too, being an upperclassmen. So hopefully he can stay healthy the rest of the way because we need him. Hopefully he’ll be better Tuesday than he was today but it was good to have him back.”
But it was Maryland’s guards who handled most of the rebounding on Saturday as Cowan and Huerter’s combined 11 matched with Morsell’s nine and Wiley’s five made up the majority of the Terps’ boards.
“We’re playing four guards so our guards have to rebound for us, and they did it,” Turgeon said.
Maryland led wire-to-wire against the Wildcats on Saturday and will look to keep its momentum going as the Terps take their show on the road to play Nebraska in Lincoln Feb. 13.
“It’s good to win,” Turgeon said. “It’s hard to win. I’m really happy for the guys. It’s tough. Losing stinks and what we’ve been through is no fun. But hopefully we’re peaking at the right time.”