Terps fall to Nebraska 70-66 in Lincoln, road losing streak now at seven
Maryland (17-11, 6-9 Big Ten) lost yet another close road game Feb. 13 to make it seven straight defeats away from College Park and put the Terps’ postseason in serious jeopardy.
In front of its home crowd in Lincoln, Nebraska (20-8, 11-4) was led by a game-high 26 points from junior wing James Palmer Jr. and used a big second half to beat Maryland 70-66 on Tuesday night.
After going into halftime trailing the Terps by two, the Cornhuskers came out and hit six of their first seven shots in the second half and staved off several Maryland runs to come away with a narrow victory.
Palmer scored his 26 on an efficient 10-for-19 shooting and also filled the box score with five assists and four rebounds. Behind him was a balanced scoring attack for Nebraska, highlighted by an impressive showing by the Cornhuskers frontcourt.
Tim Miles’ starting bigs--Isaac Copeland and Isaiah Roby--combined for 20 points, 19 rebounds and 4 blocks against the Terps on Tuesday night, as Maryland had no answers in the paint on defense.
The Terps were able to get some production down low out of freshman Bruno Fernando, who finished with a team-high 21 points, nine rebounds and two blocks to go along with a career-high five assists. But Fernando was virtually alone in his efforts with senior center Michal Cekovsky not scoring his first points off the bench until midway through the second half.
Fernando’s one-man show in the paint wasn’t enough to fix Maryland’s recent rebounding woes, as the Cornhuskers cruised to a plus-six margin on the boards.
Huerter was second in scoring for the Terps behind Fernando with 12 points, but foul trouble kept him on the bench for much of the second half and negated his effectiveness on Tuesday.
It wasn’t the prettiest night for Terps sophomore point guard Anthony Cowan, who shot 3-for-13 from the floor, including 1-for-7 from beyond the arc, to finish with just seven points. He did however dish out a game-high seven assists to go along with five rebounds.
With three games remaining on Maryland’s regular season schedule, the Terps squandered away one of their last chances to pick up road win within the conference. Mark Turgeon’s team’s chances of making the NCAA Tournament have drastically dropped with the loss to the Cornhuskers on Tuesday night, but the Terps will still hope to finish their year strong and make some noise in the Big Ten Tournament.
Maryland’s next time out comes at home against Rutgers Feb. 17, and its last road game of the regular season and last chance for the Terps to prove they can win on an opponent’s floor is Feb. 19 at Northwestern.