Andre Mills did everything he could Wednesday night to keep Maryland men’s basketball afloat in the first half. With virtually no help, the redshirt freshman kept Northwestern within striking distance until after break.
Seven minutes into the second half, a brief flash of complete basketball saw three different Terps score in succession. Maryland hopped in the driver’s seat — briefly. Then everything fell apart.
Maryland’s issues with efficiency and defensive communication came to an embarrassing head.
The Wildcats — one of the few teams below Maryland in Big Ten standings — took full advantage to the tune of a 22-4 run.
Mills finished with 39 points, a performance that shows just how high his ceiling can become. But it wasn’t enough for the Terps. They fell, 78-74, on the road in Evanston to move to 3-12 in Big Ten play.
The entire gameplan from the jump centered around getting Mills one-on-one opportunities to drive for layups or pull up from deep. Action repeatedly resulted in him receiving the ball at the wing — and his moves repeatedly resulted in points.
Mills scored Maryland’s first eight points with two impressive 3-pointers and a prayer of a layup while falling down. Maryland’s first attempt by someone other than him was a Solomon Washington dunk — that Mills assisted.
Northwestern’s guards had zero answers for the redshirt freshman’s physicality. Contact simply didn’t seem to affect Mills, as he lined up ball and basket from some absurd angles down low. When he didn’t get into the paint, he sized up his defender and fired from deep — he was 3-of-4 on 3-pointers in the first half.
But that wasn’t enough without supplementary help, which he didn’t get. Northwestern was lethally efficient in the opening minutes, in part due to some visible confusion on the Terps’ end.
But that doesn’t take away from the Big Ten’s leading scorer, Nick Martinelli, continuing to excel. He was the scoring nucleus for Northwestern, but selfless ball movement meant everybody ate. The Wildcats opened the night 8-of-10, and 10 of their first 12 makes were assisted.
Northwestern built up a six-point lead by that point. They kept a short pace ahead of the Terps for much of the half — but if not for the heroics of Mills, it would have become lopsided in short order.
Mills was 8-of-10 for 22 points in the first half. The squad around him was 5-of-13 for 13 points. No one else eclipsed four points before the break.
When Maryland finally got back into the lead early in the second half — for the first time since the 16:37 mark of the first frame — there was no surprise who made the push. Elijah Saunders kicked a pass out to Mills in the corner, and Mills nailed it.
With the rest of the guard unit finding some form — Watts, Coit and Adams flashed early in the second half — things looked up for the Terps. They built out to a six-point lead with 13 minutes to go.
From that point on, one very characteristic thing happened: Maryland’s offense became anemic. Another far-less characteristic thing happened: Northwestern junior Jordan Clayton went lights-out.
Clayton entered Wednesday night averaging 2.7 points per game. He was shooting just 2.3 triples a night, and he only had 17 3-point makes on the season. But across Northwestern’s 22-4 run, Clayton was electric. He shot four 3-pointers in five minutes, and drained all four — en route to a career-high 20 points on a career-high six makes from deep.
Maryland clawed back in the closing five minutes, but it was far from pretty. Each team made just one field goal in that period — but combined for 25 free throw attempts.
Ultimately, it wasn’t enough for Maryland to go nearly five minutes without a field goal before Washington threw one down in the closing seconds.
Northwestern’s third conference win means it’s eclipsed Maryland in Big Ten standings — and the Terps now have just an 11% chance to avoid a first-round bye.
Three things to know
1. Mills is a special talent. Thirty-nine points is the most by a Maryland freshman since Diamond Stone scored that many in December 2015. It came with Mills scoring at all three levels and being a pest on the boards — three turnovers isn’t a bad mark given how many double teams were thrown at him in the second half.
Defensively, his aggression didn’t waver with his offensive usage. The limit for Mills may be the sky.
2. Frontcourt playmaking. Saunders and Washington didn’t light up the scoreboard, but their impacts were palpable in other ways. Washington was his best self at the glass — 14 rebounds, four on offense — and each found great success kicking the ball out to guards, with a combined nine ass
3. Diggy dud. Coit is the one expected to be putting up 39 points on any given night, but it was far from that Wednesday. The graduate simply didn’t have his stroke — the looks were there, but only three of his 14 tries went in. Coit was 0-of-7 from beyond the arc.
