No. 3 Maryland eviscerates Northwestern women’s basketball 96-65

The Wildcats walked into College Park and got annihilated by No. 3 Maryland.

Northwestern (13-4, 2-2) was unable to rebound from a close game against Ohio State and lost 96-65 to a vastly superior Maryland (15-1, 3-0) team. Northwestern was down 23-10 after 10 minutes and 45-22 at halftime and were thoroughly outplayed on both sides of the ball despite receiving 22 points from Nia Coffey and 17 from Christen Inman.

But there’s only so much you can do against the best team in the Big Ten on the road. Maryland nearly ended UConn’s historic win streak last week and has been playing at an otherworldly level behind first-year point guard Destiny Slocum. Maryland’s last game was a 93-49 drubbing of Nebraska in Lincoln.

That being said, Northwestern did not even make the game much of a contest, which comes as a disappointment after Tuesday’s close game against No. 11 Ohio State. The offense that worked wonders in Welsh-Ryan was utterly stagnant in the first half against Maryland. Ashley Deary, Nia Coffey and Lauren Douglas failed to hit a field goal in the first half as the Wildcats’ offense solely relied on Christen Inman hitting tough midrange jumpers.

Meanwhile, Northwestern struggled again with rebounding and three-point defense as Walker-Kimbrough, Slocum and Confroy torched Northwestern from outside. The offense improved as the game went along, but Maryland was able to score at will against the Northwestern defense. Maryland out-rebounded Northwestern 47-30, leaving Joe McKeown furious on the sidelines.

Northwestern played better in the second half but was unable to cut into the deficit and go on an extended run. Maryland only won the third quarter by two points but still cruised to a 31-point win. It’s a disappointing result for Northwestern, if not a surprise, as Northwestern has not played Maryland well ever since the Terps moved from the ACC.

Northwestern will hope to bounce back with a game at Minnesota on January 11.