Women’s Basketball

Last time Northwestern faced off against a top-10 conference foe, it started hot and held on for a victory. This time, the Wildcats started slow and couldn’t mount a comeback.

No 8. Maryland (16-2, 5-1 Big Ten) used a 26-13 first quarter and strong shooting to cruise to an 80-62 victory over the Wildcats (13-5, 2-4) on Sunday.

“(I’m) just disappointed,” said coach Joe McKeown. “We didn’t play very well today. I don’t have a great reason because we played great Thursday night, beat Ohio State, and I thought that momentum would carry into tonight.”

In the win over No. 5 Ohio State on Thursday, NU started on a 10-3 run and led by 18 at halftime, then spent the rest of the game staving off the Buckeyes’ comeback attempt. Against Maryland, Northwestern was the team forced to play catch-up.

Two Terrapins put up double-doubles against NU: guard Kristen Confroy and center Brionna Jones. Confroy hit eight 3-pointers, including her first seven attempts, for all of her game-high 24 points, while also adding 10 rebounds. Jones put up 14 points and 14 boards.

Guard Brene Moseley came off Maryland’s bench to add 17 points and seven assists.

McKeown said Maryland’s hot shooting from the perimeter opened up opportunities for the Terps on the inside.

“(Confroy’s shooting) just opens up offensive rebounding lanes for them and being able to throw the ball inside Brionna Jones,” McKeown said. “We had a hard time guarding her and those two really hurt us.”

Junior forward Nia Coffey led NU with 19 points and nine rebounds. Senior guard Maggie Lyon and junior guard Christen Inman chipped in 13 apiece for the Cats, although the two were just 1-for-9 from beyond the arc.

Overall, NU shot just 11.1 percent from long range.

“We just couldn’t get going,” McKeown said. “We were a little tired. We’re a better team than we showed today. It’s just frustrating more than anything else.”

The Cats showed a few signs of a potential comeback, but Maryland always had an answer. With time running out in the third quarter, junior guard Ashley Deary banked in a heave from beyond half court to pull NU within 12. Yet, the Terps went on a 6-0 run, bringing their lead back to 18, which would be the final margin.

“I actually thought we could get it down to single digits in the fourth quarter … maybe get in some transition, turn them over a little bit,” McKeown said. “But we never could get to that point.”

NU finally gets an unranked opponent in its next game, as it travels to take on Minnesota on Wednesday.

This post was updated at 3:05 p.m. with postgame quotes.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Kristen Confroy’s name. The Daily regrets the error.

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