HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. – 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.
Mincy and Brown hit two 3 pointers 45 seconds apart as Maryland pushed the lead to double digits. Mincy hit another with 13:38 left as the Terrapin claimed a 53-35 advantage.
Maryland then missed 17 of its next 18 shots while Northwestern launched a 15-5 surge that cut the deficit to 58-50 with 3:03 to play.
Northwestern never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Four Terrapins earned All-Big Ten honors earlier this week. Brown and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough were named to the All-Big Ten First Team by both the coaches and the media, while Mincy and Brionna Jones made the All-Big Ten Second Team as voted by the media. Jones was named to the coaches’ First Team. Brown was also named to the five-player All-Big Ten Defensive Team. Malina Howard earned a Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.
Brown was named one of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Women's College Player of the Year this week. Frese was named one of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year.
The Big Ten Championship game will be televised around the world Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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