Maryland’s five seniors played their final game at the XFinity Center on Saturday and closed out the regular season with a bang, getting revenge on Northwestern with a 74-61 victory on senior day.
Selton Miguel started the scoring off for Maryland with a top of the key three a few possessions in followed by a Julian Reese and-1 finish at the rim. The Wildcats however got off to a hot start on the other end making four of their first six shots from the field through the first media timeout.
Both squads had several early turnovers and struggled to sustain consistent possessions, Northwestern led early because of their quick start but wasn’t able to continue that stretch for long. Maryland started slow as well, missing eight of the first 11 shots of the game.
Nick Martinelli was the lone player on the court who had a good first ten minutes shooting the basketball with six points through the first eight minutes, leading Northwestern to their early lead at 13-10 with 11:27 left in the first half.
Outside of Reece, Maryland shot 2/9 from the floor through the first ten minutes of action along with dishing out seven turnovers in this span as well. The rough shooting and frustration boiled over for Derik Queen, who was issued a technical foul after an exchange with the refs. The tech also took away a Maryland possession in the process. A Martinelli three moments later swung the momentum in Northwestern's favor who were now up 19-12.
Maryland responded emphatically with a 8-0 run and finally seemed to have cohesion on offense. Gillespie floater for points seven and eight of the run gave Maryland their first lead of the half. The run was subdued by two Martinelli free throws, but as a team Northwestern failed to make a basket for over three minutes during this span.
The Terps started knocking down shots making four straight to take a 24-21 lead. Once again though, Martinelli quickly cut into a narrow Maryland lead, this time with an and-1 floater to tie things up at 24-24.
In the final stages of the first half, Maryland narrowly held onto a lead with opportunities to build separation going into the locker room, but Northwestern fought to keep it close and did so successfully. As the buzzer sounded, and despite 11 first half turnovers, Maryland led 32-39.
Turnovers have been a problem as of late for this team, which with it being March, Willard knows he has to find a solution to the inability to play clean basketball for long stretches.
“The turnovers are a little bit of an issue. They were against Michigan too. I got to figure out how to practice, how to work on our fast break, to be honest with you. Without - I'm not that smart of a guy - I had to work on a fast break with only eight guys. Because that's all we have to practice, is eight guys. And that's been a little bit of an issue over the last two and a half weeks where I think we've been really solid defensively. We've been pretty good in the halfcourt offense. Our fast break numbers have really gone down because we've been really sloppy, because we haven't been able to practice that as much. I got to try to figure a way this week that we can stay sharp on the break, because I think we had seven of our turnovers were on the fastbreak, and it just looks like we're just like, we have no idea what we're doing when that was a really, really strong suit, in the middle of January and February.”
The final 20 minutes in the XFinity Center for Maryland’s seniors started slowly like the first half on offense, not making a shot until the 17:32 courtesy of a Miguel three. Turnovers continued to plague Maryland with turnovers in the first 4 minutes of the second half. Miguel hit a second three a couple of possessions later, which already was more shots than he made in the first half.
Northwestern refused to go away and continued to keep the score close. Martinelli’s 16 first half points was a huge help in that effort, along with Ty Berry who made a couple big time shots in the first seven minutes of the second half as well. The Wildcats were able to come back and re-tie the game at 41-41, and take the lead on a Berry free throw soon after.
Just as Northwestern responded to Miguel’s two threes moments earlier, Maryland immediately retaliated. Jordan Geronimo came in for Queen and in what felt like the span of seconds, he had two boards and a bucket. His board on the defensive side led to a Gillespie three in transition for his first points of the second half. Northwestern Head Coach Chris Collins immediately called a timeout to subdue any possible momentum for the Terps, who now led 46-42.
Martinelli continued to be a pest and got to twenty points for the game with 10:14 remaining. Berry had gone quiet since his two jumpers in the half. It appeared offensively the Wildcats would go as far as Martinelli could take them unless someone else could figure something out. With nothing working on offense for the Cats, Maryland had an opportunity to build a lead.
Rice knocked a three from the wing to extend the lead to seven, for his first made shot of the half. Similar to Miguel, Rice struggled to put the ball in the basket early and desperately needed to see one go in. His three made the score 53-46, and Maryland could sense they had the momentum.
Gillespie soon followed with a three of his own and Rice knocked down a floater as well. The hot run gave Maryland a nine point lead, at 60-51. More importantly, the Terps seemed to gain control of the game.
Queen got into foul trouble and had four fouls with five and a half minutes remaining, one of which was his technical from the first half. The question now was how long Willard would leave him on the bench with the game still in reach for Northwestern, who trailed by nine heading into the final media timeout with 3:59 left in the game.
Geronimo, who came in for Queen, immediately produced a putback finish for his second basket of the game. Similar to his performance against Michigan a few days prior, Geronimo was bringing invaluable minutes to the Terps who’s lack of depth has been a concern for many all season long.
Queen re-entered the game following the media timeout, and on Maryland’s first possession, he got a bucket on a wide open slam. Queen had been relatively quiet up to this point in the game, as the slam put him at 10 points for the game.
Moments later, the biggest blow of the game came for Northwestern as starting big man Matthew Nicholson fouled out of the game, which of course led to the infamous “left, right left, right” chant as he walked off the court courtesy of the student section. Now, Northwestern had to fight against a team with tons of size without their best man down low.
Reese hit a free throw with 2:44 left to extend the lead to 10, at 69-59. In the home stretch, Maryland had an opportunity to shut the door completely, and that’s exactly what they did. With less than two minutes left, Gillespie held the ball for a long possession, and drilled a three to put the dagger in the hearts of Northwestern fans. The lead was now at 13, and Maryland was on their way to a senior day victory.
The best moment of the afternoon was watching Maryland’s seniors exit the game for the final time at home. By far, the loudest the arena got all night was when JuJu Reese came out, and Ben Murphy entered the game. Two seniors, one incredible moment, and a final win to the regular season for Maryland.
All five seniors went out with a bang, but for Maryland fans, being able to see Reece go out a winner was incredible. Willard embraced Reece with an emphatic hug. Having Reece be a part of an incredible team like this is a testament to his commitment to the program in a transfer portal era. Making sure he stayed was a top priority for Willard, more importantly that he would be able to accomplish every goal he set out for himself.
“That was a conversation Ju and I had last March, was three big things he wanted. He wanted to get his degree from the University of Maryland. He wanted - that was really the biggest thing. He wanted to get his degree from the University of Maryland because he's a Maryland kid, so it meant that much. He wanted to get back to the NCAA tournament and he felt that this was the best place to do it. And he was loyal. Third, he was loyal. He's like I've been here and you've done right by me and I know you're going to continue to do right by me. When you transfer you never know what's going to happen. And he knew that he had a home, and he had a guy who's going to take care of him.”
Reece finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds, yet another double-double to his name and to his time as a Terp. He’s been the face of Maryland basketball, and Willard was beyond proud of his most loyal player.
“I think he really embraced his last time being here. And I'm very thankful for our students and our fans to get here and give him I think - you're probably looking at maybe one of the last guys ever to spend four years or been here for four years at Maryland. So I think it was really special for him to get that moment.”
The Terps were outstanding on the glass all game, out rebounding the Wildcats 45-23, and shot a much improved percentage from deep compared to the first half when they made just three point shot as a team.
Maryland now turns their attention to the Big-10 Conference and double-bye that they earned, along with preparing for March Madness. The Terps however have not had success coming off a bye or long period between games this season. Willard, knowing this, will have to be incredibly astute with managing his players during this break.
“We have not been good coming off byes. Thanks a lot, appreciate it. I was going to go have a beer but now I’m going to switch to whiskey. Going out west was, we had four days off because of the New York trip so that was a really – and then going out west. And I thought we played pretty good going into Ohio State, we just missed our free throws. We would’ve won at Ohio State if we made our free throws. I think we’re going to take, technically, two days off but it won’t be a full two days. It’ll be like a day and a half.”
The seniors were sent out the right way, Maryland won the final regular season, and for the first time in the post-pandemic era, Maryland had real aspirations of being one of the final teams remaining in March.
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