EVANSTON, Ill. — Maryland men’s basketball entered Thursday night’s game at Northwestern riding high off a pair of critical Big Ten victories, only to have its winning streak dashed at the buzzer of an overtime thriller.
The Wildcats received the ball underneath their own hoop with 0.7 seconds remaining in overtime with the score tied at 74. Northwestern coach Chris Collins drew up a play for junior forward Nick Martinelli, who drilled the game-winner.
“[We] really just wanted to take away any of the slips of trying to get anything backdoor, mostly [to senior guard Brooks] Barnhizer,” Maryland coach Kevin Willard said. “They run a little curl play with a slip and I thought we did a good job on Barnhizer. Stood up and threw it, took away the slip and you gotta give Martinelli credit. We got hammered on a screen and he hit a tough shot.”
The Terps (13-5, 3-4 Big Ten) trailed the Wildcats, 66-57, with under four minutes remaining before a clutch 3-pointer from Rodney Rice ignited a late rally that brought Maryland to within two. Trailing 66-68, Maryland failed to tie to the game on back-to-back possessions, but was handed a gift in the form of a missed free throw on the front end of a one-on-one from Barnhizer with 18 seconds left in regulation.
The third time proved to be the charm, as Ja’Kobi Gillespie drove to the basket for a layup to tie the game at 68 with six seconds remaining. Barnhizer (20 points, 10 rebounds, five assists) was once again given a chance to seal the Terps’ fate, but he missed a potential game-winning layup, sending the game to overtime.
With Maryland down 74-72 in overtime, Gillespie (14 points) would once again drive to the hoop and tie the score with six seconds to spare. The game appeared to be heading to a second overtime, but Martinelli (22 points) had other plans.
“I feel like it was just a great play call by their coach,” senior forward Julian Reese said. “It was a great overall shot and great execution by their team.”
Reese led the Terps in scoring with 23 points, tying a season-high for the Randallstown native. He carried much of the freight for the Terps offense, with Monday’s top scorers Derik Queen and Rodney Rice in foul trouble for much of the game. Queen picked up his fourth foul with 5:51 remaining, and Rice (10 points) fouled out with 18 seconds left in regulation. Just three nights after each put up 20 points, the pair combined for just 19 on Thursday.
Queen entered Thursday’s game coming off a career-high 27-point effort. The five-star freshman followed up his stellar performance with just nine points on 4-for-9 shooting, 14 rebounds and five turnovers against Northwestern (11-6, 2-4).
“When you come off and you have 27 points in the night before, Chris Collins isn’t going to let him get 27 points the next night,” Willard said. “And I thought they did a really good job of switching the pick-and-rolls with him, being physical, staying under him, loading up the box, and I think that’s something Derik’s going to get used to. He’s gotta realize how teams are playing him. Sometimes you gotta be a passer, sometimes you gotta be a finisher, and he’ll learn from it and get better from it.”
But what really crippled the Terps on Thursday night were a sloppy 16 turnovers.
“You can’t have 16 turnovers,” Willard said. “So far, our second-half defense, at Oregon, wasn’t good. Our second-half defense against Washington wasn’t good. I thought we did some good things and made some stops, but you have to play a really complete game on the road to win in Big Ten play, especially in a tough environment with a really physical basketball team.”
Reese said the Terps were caught off guard by Northwestern’s physicality, which contributed to the high turnover numbers.
“Northwestern’s a really physical team and they came out and we kind of got thrown off by that physicality,” Reese said. “They’re probably the most physical team we’ve played so far. And we weren’t used to that. I feel like they kind of got us, and as the game went on, we adjusted.”
Thursday’s loss drops Maryland to 3-4 in conference play. Willard’s team has yet to win a Big Ten game on the road this season.
“Unfortunately, it’s been a little bit of us hurting ourselves either defensively late in games and today we had a fast-break layup that we missed,” Willard said. “So unfortunately, we’re doing something different. … What I can say is these guys are battling and we’re in every game and we’ll figure it out.”
Maryland will next host Nebraska on Sunday at noon at Xfinity Center.
Nebraska at Maryland
Sunday, noon
TV: Big Ten Network
Radio: 105.7 FM