The third-ranked and top-seeded Maryland women’s basketball team used a total team effort and strong play from its bench to beat No. 24 Northwestern on Saturday night, sending the Terrapins to the Big Ten tournament championship game in their first season in the league.
Lexie Brown led the way with 17 points and went 6-6 at the free throw line down the stretch to seal the win. Laurin Mincy and Brene Moseley added 15 apiece as the top-seed Terrapins (29-2) face second seed Iowa or third-seeded Ohio State in Sunday’s title game.
“I thought Northwestern came out, showed what a great team they are with the first punch,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “They were really aggressive and got us on the back of our heels. The first 10 minutes, I thought they really sped us up. I thought a big difference for us was our bench play. When you talk about we went to our bench, Lexie got in foul trouble, we were able to go to our bench and really stretch out with our defense and with our depth and I thought that was a huge turning point for where we’re at.”
Nia Coffey had 23 points before fouling out, while Alex Cohen added 12 for the fourth-seeded Wildcats (23-8). Coffey had 14 points as Northwestern opened an early 23-12 lead while Maryland managed just 5-for-18 (25 percent from the field) in the same span.
The Wildcats had two more 11-point leads until the Terrapins pushed back with a 22-6 run to close the half. Maryland scored 11 unanswered points in a span of 2:12 for a 34-29 lead with 38 seconds left while Kiara Leslie’s buzzer-beating putback opened a 36-31 halftime lead. from umterps.com
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