Dez Wells' game-winning put-back caps Maryland's furious rally
The only type of narrow loss Northwestern had managed to avoid during its first six Big Ten games was one in which the Wildcats let a late lead slip away.
Now they can scratch that off the list too.
Star-crossed Northwestern blew an 11-point lead in the final four minutes at Maryland on Sunday night, suffering a 68-67 loss in a game in which it didn't trail until the final 30 seconds. A go-ahead jumper by Tre Demps with 11 seconds left could have averted disaster for the Wildcats, but Northwestern couldn't get the stop it needed, surrendering an acrobatic fall-away put-back from Maryland's Dez Wells in the final seconds after Melo Trimble's 3-pointer rimmed out.
Sunday's loss followed an all-too-familiar formula for Northwestern: Earn respect pushing a more talented opponent to the brink, yet find a way to lose in the final minutes. Four of the Wildcats' six Big Ten losses are by five or less points including two-point heartbreakers against Ohio State and Michigan last week. A fifth loss came by seven points in overtime at Michigan State.
Squandering a lead against Maryland (18-3, 6-2) had to be the worst of all for Northwestern (10-10, 1-6) because the 13th-ranked Terps are a Big Ten title contender. The Wildcats couldn't keep Trimble and Wells out of the lane in the second half, nor could they shake that shell-shocked look when things started to snowball in favor of Maryland.
They milked the clock and settled for contested jumpers. They fueled Maryland fast-break chances with careless turnovers. They also surrendered too many offensive rebounds, none more costly than the last one that resulted in Wells' game-winning put-back.
The good news for Northwestern is that it's clearly making progress in year two under Chris Collinsworth even if it's win-loss record doesn't show it. The bad news is road games at Nebraska and Wisconsin are up next, meaning it may be a while before the Wildcats add any real victories to their stack of moral ones.
(Thanks for the video, Rob Dauster)
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
