After falling to 0-4 in true road games this season, Maryland men’s basketball head coach Kevin Willard took note of the miscues and unforced errors in the 76-74 overtime loss against Northwestern.
“We had a couple [of] loose balls towards the end,” Willard told Chris Knoche. “You think about we had a great deflection on the last play – Jay [Young] gets the deflection, and then, we can't get that loose ball. So we had a couple of those – one in regulation, obviously, the one in overtime. And give them credit, they made a nice play and [Nick] Martinelli hit a tough shot.”
Maryland led for the first four minutes of the second half before Northwestern assumed control, thanks to a 13-0 run, and clung to at least a one-possession lead the rest of the way. A 6-0 run over the final 1:59 gave Maryland life as Ja'Kobi Gillespie capped it off with the game-tying layup with six seconds remaining, sending the game to overtime, where the Terps continued momentum. After Derik Queen's tip-in got the overtime soring started, Julian Reese's exceptional free throw shooting pushed Maryland back ahead by two before Nick Martinelli tied the game one minute later. But four turnovers, including a missed fastbreak opportunity from Jay Young with 47 seconds left and the game tied, hindered their comeback efforts - and Northwestern capitalized.
“The biggest thing is they did a good job switching, being physical with Derik [Queen]. I thought the biggest thing, we went small with Jay and Ja’Kobi [Gillespie]. Just trying to get a little bit more pressure, a little bit more speed out there. And I thought really that was a difference maker. [Julian Reese] was great inside. He was being dominant all night. I thought he was getting fouled, you know, almost on every play but that's the type of game it was. It was a big, physical game, you know. And again, coming on the road, can't have 16 turnovers. And I think that was really the end of it. We had 16 tough turnovers – that really is tough to overcome on the road.”
And there’s no time to hit the reset button, either with the team headed back to College Park to host Nebraska on Sunday afternoon.
“That's the tough thing about it – there's no time to really feel bad for yourselves,” Willard added. “We gotta go back, watch film, see where we made mistakes, correct those mistakes. We're gonna get in late, probably five o'clock in the morning. We gotta try to somehow put a gameplan in for Nebraska a little bit. Get our rest. Get these guys some rest and then get ready for a good Nebraska team.”
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